The aerospace industry is arguably one of the fastest innovators and technological advancers. One of the fields where this is most evident is satellites.
We often witness news stories related to the activity that exists in orbit around our planet. Although we are solely responsible, we are not fully aware of the true relevance and implications of this issue.
It can be said that we are currently in the midst of a space cold war, with more clouds than clearings.
Among the highlights of the aerospace industry, in October this year we celebrate 60 years since the first artificial satellite was launched and put into orbitSputnik I. The former Soviet Union launched this satellite equipped with a pair of radio transmitters for scientific purposes such as carrying out studies of the upper layers of the atmosphere or studying the ability to transmit through them. It predated the launch of the US Explorer satellite by a few months. What better proof than this to confirm that from the very beginning, the world's aerospace powers have always been in competition with each other. to be at the forefront of the technology race. However, a new interest was soon added to the list.
It is more important to spy on ourselves than to investigate space.
The purely scientific motivationbased on rocket launches loaded with telescopes, radio probes and reconnaissance probes (some of them sent far beyond Earth orbit), is not alone in inviting governments to invest huge sums of money for this purpose. From almost the very beginning, satellites have been launched and are being used as tools (to monitor our GPS for example) and others, less well known, which are being used as spy and strategic weaponry. The latter are capable of recording any point on the planet with good resolution, as well as locating vehicles, ships, aircraft and even submarines through their radio and radar signals.
The fact that we barely have any technical specifications for this type of satellite is just another demonstration of the importance that each government attaches to keeping it secret. In fact, we would not even know of their existence if it were not for some leaks from former CIA and NSA employees, for example, in the case of the US.
Hopefully, only the approximate weight of some of these satellites is known.
For example, a pair of spy satellites under the responsibility of the US company ULA (United Launch Services) was launched last March on board an Atlas rocket from the Vandenverg air base (California). These secret military spying, surveillance and electronic intelligence satellites, SIGINT, the brainchild of the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), appear to be the INTRUDER 12, even though the US government camouflages them with other less "disturbing" names.
Normally 2 or 3 satellites of this type are dedicated in order to have a better ability to triangulate the position of targets.
But it is not only the US that is using space to do its own thing - far from it. China is running an Intruder-like programme consisting of three trios of Yaogan satellites with the primary objective of locating and monitoring US carrier groups. On the European side, France, Spain, Italy and Belgium collaborate in the Helios spying programme; Germany maintains its SAR-Lupe programme, while the UK is pursuing the Zircon programme. The Middle East is monitored by a programme called Ofek, run by Israel and primarily aimed at monitoring Iran's nuclear programme. Japan also has its IGS spy satellite. Even Egypt monitors its heritage with DesertSat.
There are many nations that have their own secret space espionage programme.
Russia is not to be outdone and has its own toy: one of its spy satellites is called RORSAT, and it is involved in various intelligence and space surveillance programmes. The Soviet government intends to lead this arms race and, to remove any doubts, is working on the manufacture of an airborne laser to counter any espionage attempts by a potential enemy, whether from land, sea, air or space. This is the Almaz programme, which aims to install on its aircraft a defence system based on an infrared laser capable of neutralising signals from other intelligence sources.
There is already hostilities up there.
Little by little, this whole strategy is beginning to escalate. The Russian government has hunted down and published photographs of active US spy satellites (such as Lacrosse, for example), some camouflaged among space debris, which has become a matter of great concern within the US government.
North Korea, for its part, launched the Kwangmyongsong-4 a couple of years ago to assist in the protection and development of its nuclear programmes and allegedly in violation of sanctions imposed on the country by the United Nations Security Council, posing a threat to world peace and security.
It is a competition that is going from strength to strength. It can be said that we are facing a cold war in spacewith more clouds than clear skies. Let's hope that this war remains cold and that it doesn't rain.
