![]() ![]() ![]() Now that the satellite has been pinpointed, Aftergood worries that Iran can evade it. USA 224, one of America's most advanced spy satellites, passed over the launch site shortly after the accident. A group of independent satellite spotters says it has already determined which U.S. "Yes, there is clearly more detail, but not a whole lot of useful information beyond what the best commercial imagery provides."īut Aftergood thinks Iran will be able to learn from the image. "Nations are not suddenly going to say, 'Oh no, we had no idea they could watch us this closely!' " says one senior satellite imaging expert who asked to remain anonymous because of the furor around Trump's tweet. "He is communicating that we are carefully watching and that we are using restraint, and that if we wanted to do more, we could," she says.Īt least some experts agree. The text of the tweet was clearly written by or vetted by someone with an intelligence background, Heinrichs says, noting the use of abbreviations such as SLV for "space launch vehicle." And she thinks the tweet sends a powerful message to Iran. But she also thinks it was done deliberately. "What the president did is pretty sporty," says Rebeccah Heinrichs with the conservative Hudson Institute. "In chess terms, he has sacrificed a bishop for a pawn or less," he says. Aftergood thinks the president's decision to tweet what looks like an unblurred photo of the Iranian accident was a bad idea. The photos they produce are so good, they're at the limits of the laws of physics - it's the best picture you can possibly take from space. There's a good reason for that: "These satellites are in the billion-to-multibillion-dollar range they are worth more than their weight in gold," he says. to build a case for war with Iraq.īut Aftergood thinks the images in those instances were deliberately blurred to hide what U.S. In 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell used satellite photos in his speech at the U.N. President Bill Clinton authorized the release of some satellite images during the Balkans conflict in the 1990s. Past presidents have used this power sparingly. Spy Satellite Behind President Trump's Tweet Visible were burned-out vehicles and lettering around the edge of the pad that couldn't be seen clearly in commercial satellite photos. Trump's tweet contained an incredibly sharp image of the aftermath. 29, a rocket had exploded at the Imam Khomeini Space Center in northern Iran. "I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One."īut it was the photo that left Hanham, a satellite imagery expert, gobsmacked. The wording on the tweet was cryptic: "The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran," the president said. "My reaction was to immediately save the image to my phone just in case it got taken down," she says. The first thing Melissa Hanham did when she saw President Trump's tweet last week was take a screen grab. reconnaissance satellite known as USA 224. This image tweeted by President Trump is believed to have come from a highly classified U.S. ![]()
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