Spy Satellites

Podcast Transcript

A reconnaissance satellite, otherwise known as a spy satellite, is somewhere above your head right now, collecting images and gathering intelligence on whatever it sees below it.

Ten countries are currently believed to have at least one spy satellite.

While these satellites can gather an enormous amount of data, they do not have the superpowers that they are often depicted as having in films and television.

Learn more about spy satellites, how they work and how they have evolved over time on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

The idea of a reconnaissance satellite, aka a spy satellite, is one that actually predates the satellite age. In fact, when the idea of an artificial satellite that could orbit the Earth was first proposed, the use case of spying on other countries was one of the very first that was thought of.

Before I go any further, let me say that there is much that we don’t know about spy satellites because much of the information is classified. However, over time, information has been declassified and experts have been able to make educated guesses as to the current state of the technology.

The origin of spy satellites goes back to the 19th century. The desire to get reconnaissance on an enemy goes back to antiquity. This usually had to be done via spies or traitors.

However, with the development of the hot air balloon, you could send someone up above a battlefield in a balloon attached to a rope to see what the enemy was up to.

Battlefields in the 19th century were still like ancient battlefields insofar as they were rather dense. Men were packed together shoulder to shoulder.

During the First World War, things became much more spread out, with front lines stretching out for miles. Moreover, artillery positions might be miles in the rear where artillery rounds could reach trenches but couldn’t be seen.

This problem was solved by the airplane. The first aircraft in the war were actually reconnaissance aircraft. They would fly over enemy lines, and eventually, those reconnaissance pilots started shooting at each other.

Planes like the SR-71 Blackbird and the U2-Spy plane were designed to avoid enemy surface-to-air missiles by flying faster and higher than the enemy could reach.

The problem was, of course, that this didn’t always work. The whole Francis Gary Powers and the U2 incident proved that.

The idea of using satellites for reconnaissance was first considered in the late 1940s.

In a 1946 study, the RAND Corporation proposed the concept of an “Orbital Bombardment System,” but the focus soon shifted to photographic reconnaissance.

History would prove the idea to be sound, but the RAND proposal was more than a decade away from the launch of the first satellite.

In 1955, the United States Air Force began research into the development of a satellite that could view predetermined parts of the Earth “to determine the status of a potential enemy’s war-making capability.”

The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 changed everything. The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, demonstrating that satellites could reach orbit, and now the theory had become a reality.

The Corona Program was the United States’ first successful reconnaissance satellite project, developed jointly by the CIA, the U.S. Air Force, and private aerospace contractors. It operated from 1959 to 1972 and was designed to gather intelligence on the Soviet Union and other adversaries during the Cold War.

The Corona satellites, also known under the code name Discoverer, were equipped with film-based cameras that captured high-resolution images of strategic locations such as Soviet military bases, missile sites, and other installations.

The first successful mission that returned usable images occurred in August 1960, with Discoverer 14.

Each Corona satellite carried between 3,000 and 16,000 feet or 900 to 4,800 meters of high-resolution, specially designed, lightweight film.

Corona satellites had very short operational lifespans, typically ranging from a few days to a few weeks, with most missions lasting between 10 and 20 days. The lifespan was dictated by the amount of film available and the need to return it to Earth before the satellite’s orbit decayed. Once all the film was used, the mission was effectively over, and the satellite would either deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere or remain as space debris.

The film was returned to Earth through the use of film return capsules, also called buckets, which were ejected from the satellite at the end of the mission.

Each capsule was designed to survive reentry through Earth’s atmosphere using a heat shield. As it descended, a parachute would deploy, slowing its fall to ensure a safe recovery. Special aircraft, such as C-119 Flying Boxcars and later C-130 Hercules, were stationed in pre-designated areas to catch the descending capsule mid-air using a special hook system.

Starting with the Corona program, each series of satellites was given a designation with the term Keyhole. Corona was Keyhole 1 to 4.

Physical film worked, but for obvious reasons, it was very challenging to retrieve, and an enormous amount of money had to be put into building and launching a satellite for something that only lasted a few weeks.

The first step towards resolving this problem was in 1976 with the launch of Keyhole-11. This satellite had electro-optical imaging.

Real-time image transmission was electrically sent back to Earth using secure digital downlinks. The satellite used an early version of a charged coupled device, which is similar to what can be found in modern digital cameras.

The Americans weren’t the only ones with a spy satellite program. The Soviets had their own program. Zenit satellites were the Soviet equivalent of Corona satellites. Zenit satellites were based on the Vostok human spacecraft and were film-based.

Yantar series, which began in 1974 and has continued to the present, was successor to Zenit. It had improved imaging and electronic intelligence capabilities.

While there is much we learned about the Soviet Union after it fell, one thing that wasn’t declassified was the spy satellites program because the Russian Federation picked it up.

One of the important things to understand about optical reconnaissance satellites is the concept of resolution.

Resolution in spy satellites refers to the smallest object or detail that can be clearly distinguished in an image, typically measured in centimeters per pixel, with higher resolution allowing for finer details to be observed from space.

The exact resolution capabilities of current military spy satellites are classified and not publicly disclosed. However, based on available information and expert analyses, it’s estimated that modern U.S. spy satellites, the Keyhole-11 series or better, can achieve resolutions of approximately 10 centimeters per pixel. This level of detail would allow for the identification of objects such as vehicles and equipment, but not necessarily smaller items or fine details like reading text.

So, if someone is reading a newspaper on a bench, a spy satellite couldn’t read the newspaper.

…and for all I know, there is someone working at the National Reconnaissance Office listening to this right now who is laughing because I don’t have a clue about how powerful current satellites are.

There are unconfirmed rumors of a Keyhole-12 generation of satellites and possibly even a Keyhole-13 generation, but if it exists, that is still classified.

In contrast, commercial Earth observation satellites, which provide imagery for platforms like Google Maps, offer lower resolutions due to regulatory restrictions. For instance, satellites operated by companies such as Maxar and Airbus provide imagery with resolutions of around 30 cm per pixel. This allows for the identification of larger objects like vehicles and buildings but lacks the finer detail potentially available to military-grade satellites.

If you have used Google Maps and have seen images that seem to have far better resolution, you are correct. Many major cities and urban areas have the images augmented with aerial images.

A misconception that people often have about spy satellites is that the government could just zoom in and look at any point on Earth at any time. It doesn’t work that way. Optical satellites are basically like the Hubble Space Telescope pointed at Earth. It is in low Earth orbit and is whizzing by at 17,000 miles per hour.

In a polar orbit, you could schedule a time to look at a point on Earth, but you’d have to schedule it for probably a few hours in advance, and then the image would be subject to cloud cover, daylight, and other factors.

Unlike the film Enemy of the State, satellites cannot provide live video with a bird’s eye view because they can’t hover in one spot.

Optical satellites are not the only type of spy satellites. There are also satellites that eavesdrop on radio signals.

One of the most recent launches was the NROL-44, which stands for National Reconnaissance Organization Launch. It is one of the largest and most powerful intelligence-gathering satellites ever built, designed for intercepting communications and electronic signals from adversaries.

The NROL-44 is believed to be part of the Orion series of signal intelligence satellites.

Signal intelligence satellites are different from optical satellites in that they are usually parked in geosynchronous orbit and are designed to sit and monitor a large part of the Earth.

These satellites are believed to have massive antennas: Estimates suggest Orion satellites have a 100-meter-wide mesh antenna, making them some of the largest satellites ever deployed.

These satellites are designed to pick up Military communications,

Naval transmissions, including ship and submarine movements, Government and diplomatic communications, and possibly Missile launches.

One of the most interesting types of signal intelligence satellites involves intercepting microwave signals.

If you’ve seen a microwave transmitter on a radio tower, it looks like a drum. Microwave transmissions are electromagnetic signals operating in the 1 GHz to 300 GHz frequency range. They are usually used for direct, point-to-point communications.

So, you can’t intercept a microwave signal from geosynchronous orbit by just looking down at it.

However, you can intercept the emissions that go past the receiver if you point a satellite dish at the horizon where the microwave signal would be coming from, in a straight line from the microwave transmitter. We know that the Aquacade satellites in the 1970s did just this, and there are almost certainly satellites that can do this today.

In fact, some satellites might be put in highly elliptical orbits over the poles so that they can intercept communications in the far north.

One of the biggest problems with spy satellite data today is that there is just so much of it.

Back when spy satellites would drop film canisters from orbit, the amount of data that was retrieved was limited enough that humans could process it.

Today, the amount of data that is gathered, both optical and signal intelligence, is so great that it is beyond the scope of human analysts to sift through it all.

One of the tools that the reconnaissance community has turned to is Artificial Intelligence.

Declassified documents have revealed the existence of an AI system used by the National Reconnaissance Office known as Sentient…… a name that is in no way scary.

Sentient is believed to analyze spy satellite data by automating the processing of vast amounts of imagery, signals, and intelligence reports, allowing for faster and more accurate assessments. AI-powered algorithms can quickly identify and classify objects in satellite images, detect changes over time, and recognize patterns that indicate military activity, hidden infrastructure, or potential threats.

The National Reconnaissance Office, which I’ve mentioned several times now, is one of the most important yet least talked about intelligence agencies in the world.

Currently, it is believed that there are ten countries with some manner of spy satellite capabilities: the United States, China, Russia, France, Israel, Italy, India, Germany, United Kingdom, and Spain.

Spy satellites are an extremely important part of intelligence gathering in the world today, and almost all is done outside of our view.

Even though we can’t see it, above our heads, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, hundreds of satellites are observing the surface of the planet and radio signals. This data is processed by thousands of people and some of the most powerful computer systems in the world.

The Executive Producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The Associate Producers are Austin Oetken and Cameron Kieffer.

I have two short reviews today. Both of which come from ApplePodcasts in the United States. The first is from listener MrsBenSolo,, who writes:

Completionist Club At Last!

Gary is a fantastic podcaster and there’s always something new and interesting to learn! Checking in from the Kentucky Completionist Club as of today!

Completionist Club

At Last! Gary is a fantastic podcaster and there’s always something new and interesting to learn! Checking in from the Kentucky Completionist Club as of today!

Thanks, Mrs Solo! I hope you enjoy the signature Mint Juleps that are available at the Kentucky chapter of the Completionist Club.

The next review comes from LollaFan who writes:

One of the Best Informational Podcasts

Short, concise & well-researched. With this podcast there’s no reason you can’t learn something new every day.

Thanks, Lolla! Learning something new everyday is indeed the shows motto for a good reason.

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