My understanding is that many list members, including Ted M., reside outside the US and are thus beyond US juriasdiction. Publish away! This discussion also highlights the futility of withholding orbital information about classified launches. If groups of amateurs (not just SeeSat but the Kettering Group, e.g.) equipped with ordinary binoculars and telescopes, etc., can calculate orbits and closely follow orbital maneuvers of classified satellites, so of course can unfriendly governments with all their resources. Why bother trying to hide them? Orbital elements for all launches should be part of the public record. Satellites pass overhead for everybody, eventually. On Sun, May 29, 2011 at 4:53 AM, Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek@wanadoo.nl> wrote: > > The main body of the paper includes the following segment about satellite > trackers like us: > >> While these revelations have an impish quality, an argument can be made that they impose greater discipline on the government to protect sensitive information, if only to avoid embarrassment. The same cannot be said for the amateur satellite trackers who gleefully publish the orbital inclinations of classified U.S. satellites. This phenomenon led a commission on the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which operates the nation’s spy satellites, to note that “public speculation on how NRO satellites are used has aided terrorists and other potential adversaries in developing techniques of denial and deception to thwart U.S. intelligence efforts.”65 Despite this admonition, the practice continues, most recently in 2010 when the orbit of the Pentagon’s classified X-37B spacecraft was revealed less than a month after its launch.66..... _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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