Observers recognize them mostly as KH-11 KENNAN satellites. $\begingroup$ The optics for spy satellites were built by Itek (KH-1 to 4), Perkins-Elmer (KH9) and Eastman Kodak (KH-7 and 8). Close. Posted by. The KH-11 series of reconnaissance satellites, also known by their Byeman code names Kennen (the often reported "Kennan" is a misspelling) and Crystal (since 1982), are the first American spy satellites to utilize electro-optical digital imaging, and provide a real-time optical observation capability. The U.S. government transitioned to electro-optical imaging satellites with the first launch of the KH-11 satellite series in 1976. Archived. u/54H60-77. 3. 2 years ago. So I recently became aware of these satellites. They are known under different code names, but often named Evolved Enhanced CRYSTAL (EEC). In 2019 Trump revealed a classified photo of a failed test of Iran's Safir rocket which was probably taken from one. The Keyhole satellites are a family of reconnaissance satellites launched by the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) since the mid-seventies. The National Reconnaissance Office just released video from codename Hexagon, a Cold War era spy-sat photo program. Experts believe the primary mirror is 2.4 meters in diameter, identical to the mirror size inside the Hubble Space Telescope, which Lockheed Martin derived from the KH-11 spy satellites. Optical image reconnaissance satellites use a charge coupled device (CCD) to gather images that make up a digital photograph for transmission back to Earth from an altitude of about 200 miles. The Soviets too developed their own spy satellites. A KH-11 satellite, known as USA 224, is widely believed by analysts to have taken the image of Iran’s Imam Khomeini Space Center that President Donald Trump posted to Twitter in August. So you cannot be sure who built the KH-11 optics. KH-11 Spy Satellites. Publicly available data suggests that a Russian inspector satellite has shifted its position in orbit to bring it relatively close to a U.S. KH-11 spy satellite. The operation was kept secret: Young and Crippen were instructed to perform maneuvers with the RCS thrusters to align Columbia so that the KH-11 could photograph it, but were not informed of the reason for them. KH-11 Kennen • It's a spy satellite almost as big as an 18 wheeler. Would it be possible, once the government's done with these, would it be possible to reassign them to NASA to be used … They had arranged for a KH-11 spy satellite to photograph the shuttle in orbit. KH-11 Spy Satellites. You can think of a KH satellite as a gigantic orbiting digital camera with an incredibly huge lens on it. The 2.4m telescopes NRO gave NASA were made by ITT Exelis, but that does not mean Exelis built the KH-11 optics. In the end, the key success of the spy satellite programs during the Cold War, starting with KH-1 and continuing through KH-11 (and beyond to today), was not that we could photograph the proverbial license plate of the enemy, but rather the simple lesson that with knowledge comes stability.

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