Where is Space Traffic Control?

In response to this site’s previous posts, my most curious spouse asked a very common-sense question: who controls what gets launched into the Earth’s orbit? For that matter, who controls what rockets get launched? My initial response was that price had controlled the launching of satellites into orbit. There was a time, not too long ago, […]

Is Space Becoming More Accessible for Terrorists?

Part 2 In part 1 of these posts, we noted the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) basically said it was worried that terrorists will put satellites up in space within 31 years from this year. Then the MoD gave examples, which while related to space, weren’t satellites or rockets. The article these posts are based […]

Is Space Becoming More Accessible for Terrorists?

Part 1 Well, somebody has to mention it to sell the papers sometime, and this time it was the Times of India. The story is that the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) is predicting bad guys are going to be able to launch their own nefarious satellites on rockets owned by private companies. Even […]

Satellites and terrorists

Okay, now that I’ve recovered from my previous aside and post of old information, here’s something that shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone paying attention. According to this article from the Washington Post, satellites of all sorts were used to help find and monitor Osama Bin Laden. Some SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) here, a little IMINT […]