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See the original image at wired.com

Photographer Documents Secret Satellites — All 189 of Them

wired.com — His shots of 189 secret spy satellites are the subject of a new exhibit -- despite the fact that, officially speaking, the satellites don't exist. The Other Night Sky, on display at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum through September 14, is only a small selection from the 1,500 astrophotographs Paglen has taken thus far.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 21, 2008

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  • RSS14, on 06/21/2008, -2/+164In other news, photographer who documented secret satellites commits suicide.
  • Realnemesis, on 06/21/2008, -3/+111Someone's not gonna be too happy about this...
  • inactive, on 06/21/2008, -5/+106I'm torn between saying "cool" and "what the hell are you thinking?"
  • badjoke, on 06/21/2008, -7/+106I can't wait to see his Guantanamo gallery.
  • inactive, on 06/21/2008, -2/+77hmm... and how many of those do you think are owned by major league baseball??
  • Rotzooi, on 06/21/2008, -5/+63The regular ones are documented. The ones that aren't are secret, genius.
  • SpykerSpeed, on 06/21/2008, -7/+63Anything that undermines the government is cool in my book.
  • AlexWiggy, on 06/21/2008, -1/+54If they have the right to watch us. We must have the right to watch the things that watch us :).
  • inactive, on 06/21/2008, -1/+44...Or would you like to see me hit a few dingers!?
  • julianrod, on 06/22/2008, -0/+34He shot himself in the back of his head.
    Three times.
    A tragedy.
  • ichbinladen, on 06/21/2008, -4/+36Only weak governments need to keep secrets from the people.
  • dreicher, on 06/21/2008, -3/+33"All 189 of them". How did he know there were 189?
  • inactive, on 06/21/2008, -0/+29No you are right. There are satellites with thrusters, but the amount of gas is finite so they do not use it very often. When they "run out of gas" the satellite is declared dead because they can no longer keep it in orbit.
  • inactive, on 06/21/2008, -2/+30The secret spy satellites have a Groucho Marx mask.
  • matt510, on 06/21/2008, -13/+41I am not understanding how he can tell the difference between a secret spy satellite and one of the thousands of other satellites up there.
  • antonio97b, on 06/21/2008, -1/+28DINGERS! DINGERS!
  • flipdoubt, on 06/21/2008, -3/+30I heard he was hanging out with that guy who invented the car that runs on water at the time.
  • drexl, on 06/21/2008, -1/+26Did anyone look at Paglen's own site? http://www.paglen.com/pages/projects.htm
    He's done some pretty cool stuff. The "Missing Persons" project is just crazy. This guy either has huge balls or a death wish.
  • deanoplex, on 06/21/2008, -0/+23Polar orbits allow satellites to document any point on the globe(think google-earth). If they are in polar orbit and are not reported to the public than they are spy satellites.
  • novenator, on 06/21/2008, -2/+24This is the NSA. This exhibit has been closed to the public. In fact it never existed. This digg article will be deleted and anyone who dugg it will be in our records. For more information, please see the Patriot Act.
  • bxblox, on 06/21/2008, -2/+22I don't know but if you ask the terrorists win.
  • thegodfaza, on 06/21/2008, -1/+20Well it's relatively easy to find out the flight paths of non spy satellites since they are freely available. So if there is a satellite somewhere where there shouldn't be one it means it is probably a spy satellite.
  • wKen, on 06/21/2008, -1/+19From the article: Paglen uses spy-satellite data compiled by Ted Molczan -- a renowned amateur astronomer profiled by Wired magazine in 2006 -- to predict where a given "black satellite" will be in the sky.
  • aladrin, on 06/21/2008, -0/+18You're missing the point. How does he know there's 189, and not 190, 191, 300, 1000? Why is the submitter so sure that all of the 'secret' satellites are accounted for?
  • sKiLLa182, on 06/21/2008, -1/+19Well what other ***** kind would they be if they're secret? Of course they're spy satellites.
  • sKiLLa182, on 06/21/2008, -0/+17I imagine he's found 189 of them. Doesn't mean there isn't 250 out there. They are secret, after all.
  • inactive, on 06/21/2008, -0/+16A list including a bunch of known spy satellites:
    http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/space_weapon ...

    Real time tracking of the satellite orbits:
    http://www.n2yo.com/
  • duggdowncatisad, on 06/21/2008, -15/+30Why does Berkeley hate America?
  • sKiLLa182, on 06/21/2008, -0/+15It's okay, you must have accidentally clicked on "Science." The "Entertainment" and "Sports" categories are a few clicks to the left.
  • krnldmp, on 06/21/2008, -3/+18Don't forget the strong fake democratic ones.
  • fuzzybeard, on 06/22/2008, -0/+14OK, let's set the snarking aside for a moment, and actually show how satellites can be tracked by Joe Digg.

    Start here:
    http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3 ...
    Go ahead, play with the interface; see what piques your interest!
  • mark076h, on 06/21/2008, -0/+14Very Interesting, but how do they calculate the orbital paths of spy satellites? Maybe it is just pure fiction from all the Tom Clancy novels I have read but I have always read that alot of these spy satellites especially the one used for photo reconnaissance have thrusters on them and can be moved around to different orbits and even be put into geosynchronous orbit over any part of the world?

    Do we have satellites that can do that or is it just from Tom Clancy books?
  • wKen, on 06/21/2008, -0/+14Read the linked wired article on Ted Molczan to see how they know what the satellites are used for. It is interesting.

    http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/spy.html
  • krnldmp, on 06/21/2008, -0/+13We have the right to shoot down things that watch us that aren't supposed to be there.
  • sKiLLa182, on 06/21/2008, -0/+11Who says these all belong to the US?
  • sonicularulus, on 06/21/2008, -2/+13not so secret anymore :)
  • deanoplex, on 06/21/2008, -0/+11Different kind of orbit for surveying satellites.
  • zbeast, on 06/21/2008, -0/+11well the streaks are interesting but I was expending to see detailed image.
  • sKiLLa182, on 06/21/2008, -3/+13It's called "mathematics." If you read the article, he can predict where undocumented satellites are going to be. (Read: Satellites that no government has claimed to have in existence.)

    It's like, where I work, there are 6 surveillance cameras set up around the office that are obvious and my boss has told me about. I've found 1 hidden camera. That makes it "secret" because it's a camera that has not been disclosed to me.

    I feel like I'm explaining this to a 5th grader...
  • masterm1nd, on 06/21/2008, -3/+13That's not really evidence to what they are.
  • txtphile, on 06/22/2008, -0/+10I actually saw one of these launched when I was a kid. While flying to Orlando on vacation (about half an hour out) I glanced out the window and saw what looked like a normal airplane contrail behind a bright point of light, going almost straight up. I didn't think much of it till later in the week when we took the tour of Kennedy Space Center, and the tour guide told our tram, as she pointed over the trees toward Cape Canaveral, "Oh, we couldn't have this part of the tour a few days ago because the Air Force was launching a secret spy satellite." I laughed for a good two minutes.

    But yeah, cool pictures and a very cool way to remind us that our government, of, by, for the people, has a mind of its own.
  • inactive, on 06/21/2008, -1/+10Remind me to close my blinds.
  • FromDiana, on 06/21/2008, -0/+9Someone is always watching...always.
  • JohnnyThunders, on 06/21/2008, -1/+10That is one patient ****ing photographer.
  • reddikilowatt, on 06/22/2008, -0/+9A lot of the shuttle missions in the late 1980s were "military payloads."
  • deanoplex, on 06/21/2008, -1/+10Even the shuttle craft does not carry enough fuel to change it's orbit. It can lose altitude or gain altitude but that's about all. What orbit a vehicle is in is determined before launch.
  • deanoplex, on 06/21/2008, -0/+9Satellites must be reflective to keep them cool. They are in direct sunlight (about280 degrees). Also solar panels are needed which are also highly reflective.
  • saWgurr, on 06/21/2008, -12/+21haha, im curious how he would know that they are surveillance?
  • diggduggjoe, on 06/22/2008, -0/+8Is someone getting an all expense paid trip to Gitmo?
  • alexforcefive, on 06/22/2008, -0/+8"Like the blurry abstractions of his super-telephoto images showing secret military installations in Nevada, the tiny blips of satellites streaking across the night sky in his new series of photos are meant more as reminders rather than as documentation....

    More significant than the discovery itself, Paglen says, was the idea that anyone with a telescope could verify it and see the same exact thing...."
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