Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 3–Revolution Earth

“Endless Distance, Wildlife and Stars, Blanket the Night…” The last lesson was about Field of View (FOV) and Field of Regard (FOR). It was intended to help with understanding the next few lessons regarding satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO). All mentions of GEO on this blog, unless otherwise stated, refer to a particular type of […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 2–FOV/FOR-it things

In the first lesson, you learned (if you didn’t already know) a spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit is very far away from the Earth—a little over 26,000 miles. Before going any further, an explanation of Field of Regard (FOR) versus Field of View (FOV) is in order since we will initially be talking about weather imagery satellites. […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 1–Going GEO

One of these things is just like the other… In an earlier post regarding the United States Air Force replacement of their Defense Support Program satellites with Space Based Infrared ones, there was a question posed to you: What do both the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites have in common, […]

A little about buying satellite imagery

Yup–it’s another article for Clearancejobs.com, and you can go here to read it. It’s titled “How to Buy a Satellite,” and while the title is a meant to generate interest, the article is really about how a person or company can “task” DigitalGlobe LEO imagery satellites and the considerations of imagery collection requirements management. Go […]

First a Chinese moon, now Russian, um, space weapons?

This December 6 article from the website “Russian Beyond the Headlines” is a little confusing. And I’m not sure if it’s confusing because the translators got it wrong or because there’s not much knowledge with how space assets work–or maybe even the Russians aren’t sure what they want. The article finally gets to its point […]