Ground Photo of Astronauts on Space Walk

[aerostadt]

An astro-photographer has taken a picture of ISS astronauts taking a space walk outside of the ISS.

https://www.space.com/space-station-spacewalking-astronauts-telescope-photo

 

[Rob Campbell]

Very cool!

 

[Grog6]

I was amazed at how big the space station is just in normal binoculars.
I saw the last shuttle mission at the station, it was seriously moving.

 

[aerostadt]

I am thinking if an amateur can see that well looking up, what can the professional spy satellites see looking down.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Thanks for the link on the article, Man that is truly amazing, especially for an 11-in Celestron telescope.

 

[Grog6]

I am thinking if an amateur can see that well looking up, what can the professional spy satellites see looking down.

It was pretty well known that they could read license plates in the 60's, with film technology. Today's keyhole sattelites are Hubble size and resolution.
In fact, the cure for the hubbles solar panels rattling around at the day/night transition, was supposedly given to the team by a classified leak.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I am thinking if an amateur can see that well looking up, what can the professional spy satellites see looking down.

years ago they had an article which stated that they were able to tell whether it was heads or tails on a quarter laying on the ground

 

[modeltrains]

This is cool, thanks!

 

[OverTheTop]

It was pretty well known that they could read license plates in the 60's, with film technology. Today's keyhole sattelites are Hubble size and resolution.
In fact, the cure for the hubbles solar panels rattling around at the day/night transition, was supposedly given to the team by a classified leak.

Hubble is actually a Keyhole-class telescope, not the other way around. Long before Hubble there were Corona and Keyhole, designed for looking down.

If you ever go to the Smithsonian in DC have a look at the 1/4 scale model of the Corona film transport mechanism. I was not aware of that model until I happened upon it by chance. When I saw it i knew exactly what it was and it blew my mind. The detail design of those satellites was amazing, given the tech of the time. If you are going to see it I recommend you read up on the interweb how it worked, otherwise the salient details will go unnoticed and underappreciated. There is also a book published by the AIAA with workers recounting their experiences and the design.

 

[Adam3836]

That’s awesome

 

[b.wieting]

Snowman and the Falcon

 

[OverTheTop]

Here is a video by the guy who wrote the book I have read on the Keyhole program.

The lengths they went to and the scale they operated on was amazing. In the satellite were two contra-rotating telescopes that scanned the ground, onto film, at the requested time and location, then packaged them into return vehicles that were dropped out of the satellite and picked up before landing in the ocean. It carried two rolls of 70mm film, each 3000' long.

The problem they had writing the book was that it was all stuff that had happened 30 years ago and so a lot of the content relied on people's memory. Still came out as quite a good read.

[edit] This is the book: "Meeting the Challenge: The Hexagon KH-9 Reconnaissance Satellite"
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/book/10.2514/4.102042
More details FYI
https://www.space.com/12996-secret-spy-satellites-declassified-nro.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-9_Hexagon
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/V...195921/hexagon-kh-9-reconnaissance-satellite/

 

[Peartree]

I've seen that in Dayton at the Air Force Museum. Dang big and very impressive.