Tag: imagery

Another secret Chinese launch

A Chinese Long March 2C rocket boosted another satellite with unknown intentions into orbit earlier today.  You can read all about it from NASASpaceflight.com’s posting:  Chinese Long March 2C lofts Yaogan Weixing-18 satellite.  According to the article, this launch was not officially announced. There’s not too much advertised about Yaogan Weixing-18, although NASASpaceflight.com’s article does a great […]

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Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 17—The Green Hills of Earth

Green—a word associated with jungles, a description of newbies, in songs sung by muppets about the difficulties of being it, and songs sung by fictional spacefarers about the qualities of their homeworld. Those spacefarers might be fictional, but for certain real space imagery operators, green describes a capability of a satellite payload.  Green is one […]

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Space cloud mystery answered

Remember that picture an International Space Station astronaut shot of a mysterious cloud in space I posted about on 11 Oct.?  There was a bit of guessing on what exactly that was, but it turns out all guesses were correct, for the most part.  A mobile Russian intercontinental  ballistic missile, the Topol/SS-25, caused the cloud […]

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Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 16—“Blue are the streets, And all the trees are too”

Who could forget 1999’s most famous dance single?  But does anyone remember the song’s group?? Enough dancing—time to talk about satellite operations until we’re blue in the face (sorry, couldn’t resist).  As mentioned in the previous lesson, this lesson is about DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite and the blue spectrum of its imagery payload.  Mainly, what is […]

Read More Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 16—“Blue are the streets, And all the trees are too”