alt Hacker NewsI often see Hubble in the twilight, it's one of the few big satellites you can readily see with the naked eye - not quite as bright as the ISS but pretty close.
Why have i never seen these, is it simply that I wasn't looking for them?
Replies
If I was to repurpose Hubble to be a spy satellite I would paint it black... I know it's not that simple due to sun radiation (including heat), they where probably coated with some mat black material or something to avoid this kind of detection. I'm just guessing since Hubble looks like it's wrapped in aluminum foil.
Both an incredibly different orbit, the fact that the location of NRO satellites aren't nearly as published, as well as the newer ones using simple stealth coatings so they don't shine as bright.
You assume they are in similar orbits. The spy sats might be higher than Hubble, which itself was very high for a shuttle program.
I have also wondered about similar questions.
One is that Hubble's mirror is not expected to burn up on re-entry and may therefore hit the ground.
How is this managed with similar spy satellites? Presumably the problem is more acute, because not only do you need to avoid killing someone, but you also want to avoid any chance of falling on hostile territory. Are they actively steered into known parts of the ocean? Or does something else happen (one suggestion with Hubble was actually to fire a missile at it just before entry in order to break the mirror in space).