Conference 7.286::space

From: [email protected]
Date: 17 Jan 91 18:56:08 GMT

	CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- The war in the Persian Gulf and the
threat of terrorism in the United States has prompted NASA to tighten
security at key facilities.
	At the Kennedy Space Center, where America's three space shuttles are
based and prepared for launch, guards are more carefully inspecting
employee badges at various gates and officers have been instructed to
search cars if any suspicious activity is observed.
	Gary Wistrand, deputy director of protective services at the Florida
shuttleport, said special SWAT teams were patrolling the shuttle launch
complex area so ``we'll have an absolute immediate response if we have a
problem.''
	In addition, extra guards will be posted at perimeter gates on
overnight shifts so more than one person will be on duty at isolated
outposts.
	If any terrorist activity takes place in the United States, security
will be heightened even more, possibly to the extent of closing tourist
operations. The Kennedy Space Center is the fourth most popular tourist
attraction in Florida.
	``With the things happening overseas, I wouldn't anticipate seeing an
escalation in the terrorist threat for the next several days, anyway,''
Wistrand said.
	At nearby Patrick Air Force Base, ``threatcon bravo'' was implemented
Wednesday, the second stage in four levels of anti-terrorism security
procedures.
	Threatcon bravo was implemented because of ``an increased and more
predictable level of terrorist activity,'' a spokeswoman said.
	Additional levels of security will be implemented if officials have
indications of specific threats or if a terrorist act takes place in the
area.
	At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, meanwhile, NASA managers
decided to restrict tourists to the visitors center, the base cafeteria
and an outdoor rocket display. Access to buildings housing shuttle
mockups and mission control has been restricted.

From: [email protected] (WILLIAM HARWOOD, UPI Science Writer)
Date: 18 Jan 91 18:19:32 GMT

	CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- A radar spy satellite capable of seeing
through cloud cover and penetrating the top few feet of the Iraqi desert
may be the best bet for locating hidden Scud missile launchers that
threaten Israel and Saudi Arabia, a space expert said Friday.
	But William Burrows, author of ``Deep Black: Space Espionage and
National Security,'' said only one such ``LaCrosse'' satellite is known
to be in orbit and it only passes over the Middle East every few days.
How long it might take U.S. forces to finally eliminate Saddam Hussein's
stock of Soviet Scud missiles is not known.
	``Radar is their only bet if there's cloud cover,'' he said. ``The
problem is, they've got one satellite and it comes over every couple of
days.''
	LaCrosse and advanced Hubble Space Telescope-class
photoreconnaissance satellites undoubtedly have been working around the
clock during the Persian Gulf war to locate Iraqi targets, determine
which have been destroyed during massive bombing raids and which might
need extra attention.
	``We have had superb (satellite) intelligence,'' Burrows said by
telephone from his home in Connecticut. ``Clearly, in terms of
targeting, those guys were working overtime. But ... it's not perfect,
it just isn't.
	``Everybody's always known trying to find cruise missiles and mobile
missiles was going to be very difficult. And it's turning out to be very
difficult. That's the nature of the game. This guy has come up with a
camouflage system to try and thwart our satellites and that is something
we have lived with since the dawn of the space age.''
	The missiles may be hidden in camouflaged trenches, or ditches, in
the Iraqi desert. But radar beams from LaCrosse can be used to penetrate
the top few feet of the desert to pinpoint such targets.
	``I understand they dug ditches in the ground and put the
transporters into the ditches and then covered the ditches with
camouflage,'' Burrows said. ``If that's true, there are two ways of
going about finding them: (photoreconnaissance satellites) and LaCrosse.
	``If it's a good, powerful radar satellite, which it's supposed to
be, it would be able to go sub-surface in sand 10 feet. Otherwise,
you've got to send F-16s and other stuff out to try to find them.''
	The United States operates a battery of high-tech spy satellites
capable of beaming down photos and other data minutes after a high-
altitude pass over a given target.
	Among the spacecraft providing critical information to the commanders
of Operation Desert Storm:
	--Photoreconnaissance satellites. Burrows said at least two and
possibly three satellites once known by the code name KH-11 are in
operation. Each KH-11 spacecraft is equipped with a large telescope, an
infrared scanner, light-sensitive charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, and a
sensor package with ``multi-spectral'' scanners capable of detecting
materials used in camouflage.
	--Advanced KH-11s. Burrows believes one and possibly two of these
advanced satellites, launched from NASA's space shuttle, currently are
in orbit. Such spacecraft are thought to be capable of photographing
details as small as 3 inches across.
	--LaCrosse: A radar-reconnaissance satellite believed to have been
launched from the shuttle Atlantis during the second post-Challenger
mission in December 1988. Such satellites use powerful radar systems to
penetrate cloud cover and the first few feet of the ground. A similar
system is being used by NASA's Magellan probe to penetrate the clouds
shrouding the planet Venus.
	--Mentor: One of a series of signals intelligence satellites, or 
``sigints,'' capable of intercepting military communications from space.
	--Defense Support Program satellites. DSP early warning spacecraft use
a large infrared telescope to locate the hot plumes of enemy missiles
during the launch phase. A DSP satellite may have detected the Scud
missiles launched against Israel Thursday night.
	``Theoretically, the new ones are supposed to be able to track cruise
missiles,'' Burrows said. ``Now whether it (detected the Scud launches)
or not, I have no way of knowing and if it did, whether they told the
Israelis or not ... I just don't know. It's a very advanced satellite
and it certainly should have been able to pick them up.''
	A major challenge for the allied forces in Operation Desert Storm is
to locate and destroy any remaining Iraqui mobile Scud missiles.
	But Burrows said the United States recently retired one of its best
assets for hunting down such hidden missiles: the high-flying SR-71 
``Blackbird'' spyplane.
	``The irony of this is, the one airplane that really would have
helped has just been retired, and that's the SR-71,'' he said. ``That's
an airplane that if you don't have cloud cover, you can send into a
target area like that.
	``If you send a U-2 in, you'll get killed. This is the kind of job
the SR was made to do. It had all those kinds of sensors.''

From: [email protected]
Date: 19 Jan 91 00:37:24 GMT

	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The disintegrating space junk that rattled nerves
in Israel Friday may have been from the launch of a Soviet robot craft
launched earlier in the week, an expert said.
	A piece of flaming material was spotted over Tel Aviv, raising some
concern that Iraq may have launched another rocket attack.
	But Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said the object was a Soviet
space booster rocket body that just happened to burn up over the area at
an inopportune moment.
	Old parts of boosters and dead satellites routinely re-enter the
atmosphere, where they are destroyed by the heat of atmospheric
friction.
	U.S. Space Command on Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colo.,
routinely tracks U.S. and Soviet space hardware and debris.
	Officials were not immediately available there to comment.
	James Oberg, a specialist on the Soviet space program, said the
debris could have been a booster from a robot spacecraft the Soviets
launched Monday to resupply their Mir space station.
	``This is about the right time for its booster to fall out of orbit,''
Oberg said.
	However, initial reports that the object was traveling east would
rule that out, he said.
	``Anything Soviet would be heading basically from any westerly
direction,'' Oberg said in a telephone interview from Houston.
	But Oberg said the object could have been from any of the numerous
launches that have occurred in the past weeks or months.
	``Debris falls out of orbit all the time,'' he said. ``About once a
week somewhere in the world one of these comes in.''

    sorry but James Oberg was wrong, the Progress booster had
    deorbited days before, most likly it was the rocket booster
    for a new EORSAT obj 91-004B
    john
    

    regard .4
    goofed, EORSAT is 91-005A, its booster is 91-005B
    there was also a 91-004B booster will have to double
    check and see which one it was, but it was not
    1999-002b or the booster of progress PM6 as it deorbited
    on the 15th of Jan
    
    john
    

        I checked my references, and found some data on the SS-1B Scud
        missiles being used by Iraq. Unfortunately the book is old, and
        had nothing on the Patriot. Can someone fill me in on the specs on
        this missile? Thanks.

I think that you might find that COMET::DEFENSE_ISSUES is a more appropriate
place for your question.

- dave

From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.aviation,clari.news.military
Subject: Spy satellites crucial to Desert Storm
Date: 17 Mar 91 17:02:24 GMT 
 
	CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- Military satellites were crucial
to winning the Persian Gulf War, providing critical data to Operation
Desert Storm commanders in a ``watershed'' for space-based military
activity, an Air Force official says. 

	While Pentagon officials seldom discuss operational roles of
the nation's top-secret spy satellites and other military space systems, 
Lt. Gen. Thomas Moorman, commander of Air Force Space Command, told 
Florida Today newspaper their operation was vital to the war effort. 

	``I believe that Desert Storm is a watershed for space,'' he
said in a report published Sunday. ``For the first time, space systems
were absolutely integrated into the way we did business and crucial to
the outcome of the war.'' 

	Moorman said unclassified Global Positioning System
``Navstar'' satellites were particularly useful. The Air Force is
launching a fleet of new GPS satellites that will allow users to
pinpoint their locations to within about 50 feet anywhere in the
world.  Ten upgraded GPS satellites already are in orbit. 

	Moorman said U.S. troops in Operation Desert Storm ``were in
this fobidding territory with miles and miles of sand dunes. Maps were
poor and there were no distinguishing landmarks. It was a classic
application for space-based navigation.'' 

	``I think GPS, as a result of Desert Storm, will be like air
conditioners,'' he said. ``We now will wonder how the devil we ever
got along without it.'' 

	Moorman made the comments during a visit to Patrick Air Force
Base and the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where many of
the nation's military satellites are launched. 

	Photo and radar reconnaissance satellites are believed to have
provided critical data to Desert Storm commanders while Defense
Support Program early warning satellites were able to provide warning
of impending Scud missile attacks from Iraq. 

re GPS:  I read several newspaper articles indicating that military GPS
receivers were in really short supply, but that there were some companies making
civil receivers.  It seems that the back-home loved ones of soldiers were buying
up the civil GPS receivers and sending them to the soldiers!  I further heard
the military turned off the encryption stuff in the satellites so that the civil
receivers could run at the full GPS accuracy.

This seems like it might be the stuff of urban legends...can anyone confirm
any of it?

Burns

>Note 697.9 DECWIN::FISHER
>
>re GPS:  I read several newspaper articles indicating that military GPS
>
>This seems like it might be the stuff of urban legends...can anyone confirm
>any of it?

It's my understanding that the high accuracy GPS signal is not encrypted
and would only be in time of war (big time war, not skirmishes with
third world countries).  Also, GPS navigation equipment has been
available at high price (meaning airlines) for years and is just now
getting to be reasonably priced for those of us that fly small planes.

I don't have one but someone in the flying conference might.

Regards,
David

                        -< random error not encrypted >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I had heard that they were putting in random offset 
    errors.   Thus you needed to know the encryption in
    order to get highly accurate data back.  This did not
    hurt the average person needed accuracy to the nearest
    30 ft or so.

    I think this was made public when a group or earth quake
    scientist who use the GPS to measure the distance between
    two sides of a fault line found out that they 'seem' to
    be randomly moving.   They then figure out this was not
    the signs of a potential earth quake but do to the fact
    that the US was sending back 'bad' data.

    The requested that they get the correction or that
    the US stopped doing this but I don't know what happen

    
    jb