ПН STS-38: секретно. И еще секретнее...

[carlos]

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1197/1

On November 15, 1990, the space shuttle Atlantis roared into the dark Florida sky on STS-38, the seventh dedicated mission for the Department of Defense. Of the ten classified shuttle missions conducted at the height of the program, STS-38 has been the subject of much speculation due to its secret cargo of two very unusual payloads. Tucked inside the shuttle's payload bay was a classified National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) communications satellite—known as Quasar—that would be used to relay data between intelligence spacecraft in low Earth orbit. But the Quasar payload, although highly classified, also served as a cover story for an even more exotic payload—a stealthy satellite inspection spacecraft, often referred to as "Prowler", designed to sneak up on other satellites undetected, photographing and measuring them in various ways.

:shock:
Это они про что? Про USA-41 что ли?  :roll:

[krypton]

По-видимому, перепутали 38 c 28-ю. На 28 градусах LEO инспектировать нечего. И про Prowler не ясно - похоже, это реальный "дымок", но вот чей только? Мнение Ф.Чьена о USA-41 ( http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Feb-1996/0018.html ):

I've verified that the secondary USA 41 was a GLOMR / NUSAT class
sphererical (actually soccer ball-shaped (football for those of you outside
the US and Canada)) microsat ejected from a getaway special canister.  It's
still listed in the NORAD catalog, but there is no doubt that it had to
have reeentered by now given the relatively low shuttle altitude, and lack
of propulsion capabilities for GAS ejected satellites.  The GAS folks have
verified that their hardware was used, but the payload was processed by the
Air Force.  The best bet is that it was a carbon copy of the first GLOMR
which was launched on the STS 61-A shuttle mission in October 1985.  From
published reports the GLOMR program was rather successful, and evolved in
to a classified program for light satellites.

Если так, то характеристики КА позволяют рассчитывать лишь на единичные инспекции с пролётных траекторий - высокие относительные скорости, малый масштаб и т.д. Скажем прямо, ничего особо нового и секретного. Prowler кажется чем-то другим...

[carlos]

тут как бы два вопроса смешиваются: один вполне реальный - "что такое USA-41", второй полумифический - про Prowler.
Касательно этого самого "Проулера" еще 4 года назад циркулировали всякие кошмарные предания наподобие http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6687654/?GT1=5936

'Prowler' at work
The United States has long been interested in such offensive programs, launching an experimental and highly classified satellite called "Prowler" on the space shuttle Atlantis  November 1990.

Prowler stealthily maneuvered close to Russian and presumably other nations' communications satellites in high Earth orbit, 24,000 miles (38,400 kilometers) up. These satellites are ideal targets.  They are at much higher altitudes, and thus difficult to track visually. Most of the key military satellites are in this orbit — relay satellites that transmit imagery uplinked from spy satellites, military communications satellites and electronic eavesdropping satellites that target terrestrial microwave communications.

Prowler gathered all manner of data on the high-Earth-orbit satellites: their size, measurements, radar signature, mass and the frequencies on which they relay their data.   Now experts suggest that the United States may be trying to use, or has already succeeded in using, that stealth technology to "negate" an adversary's satellite communications.

A satellite using such technology would not have to jam the other satellite's signals, strictly speaking.  Knowing how its communications systems were configured, the satellite could simply step in front of it and block its signals.  In fact, one expert said Prowler did just that in tests using U.S. communications satellites, without being detected.

How close can such a U.S. satellite get to another satellite? Within about a foot (30 centimeters), the expert said. The Prowler technology could even allow the satellite to maneuver close to the target without receiving data from Earth.  Once it came within a certain range of the target, it resorted to an internal computer program.

А вот что такое USA-41 - это действительно вопрос интересный.   :roll:

[пежмарь]

с пролётных траекторий - высокие относительные скорости

Это же отлично ! Нет нет да и столкнется.

[Tiger]

Из сегодняшней SeeSat-L:

От: Ted Molczan
Отправлено:  24.01.2011 05:36:48
Тема:  Unknown GEO Object 2000-653A / 90007 Identified as Prowler

I have recently completed research into the identity of one of our unknown GEO objects, 2000-653A / 90007 - discovered by Ed Cannon in 1998 - and concluded that it is a highly classified U.S. satellite called Prowler. The abstract and URL of the report on my findings follow.

Space Shuttle mission STS 38 is officially acknowledged to have deployed only a single payload, which is known to be a geosynchronous communications satellite, operated by the National Reconnaissance Office. It has since leaked out that STS 38 deployed a second payload: an optically stealthy, geosynchronous satellite inspector, named Prowler.

In 1998, hobbyists discovered a bright unknown GEO object, with optical and orbital characteristics of a satellite, which they call 2000-653A / 90007. By early 2010, independent GEO satellite observation networks had accounted for every single GEO satellite acknowledged to have been
launched, yet 2000-653A remained unidentified. Analysis of its optical and orbital characteristics, and other relevant facts, reveals great consistency with the emerging Prowler story, resulting in a strong circumstantial case that 2000-653A is Prowler.

http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/STS_38/Unknown_GEO_Object_2000-653A_-_90007_Identified_as_Prowler.pdf

Ted Molczan

[Старый]

an optically stealthy...
...bright unknown GEO object

[Старый]

И кого уж только не обзывали Проулером. Теперь это спутник-инспектор.

[Sharicoff]

Вопрос, которым уже давно задается народ - а что такое этот любительский 90007? Вроде бы все крупное уже повылавливали, а на роль этого 90007 кандидатов не нашлось.

[Старый]

Вопрос, которым уже давно задается народ - а что такое этот любительский 90007? Вроде бы все крупное уже повылавливали, а на роль этого 90007 кандидатов не нашлось.

А там ничего на куски не распадалось, антены не отбрасывало? Допустим взрыв какого-нибудь Экрана?

[Sharicoff]

Да вроде бы яркий он слишком для фрагмента разрушения.

[Sharicoff]

USSTRATCOM's (U.S. Strategic Command's) satellite catalogue acknowledges STS 38 to have launched a single satellite, which it calls USA 67, to which it attributes two rocket bodies.
Presumably, USA 67 is SDS 2-2, but 2nd generation SDS satellites employed a single PKM (perigee kick motor), which raised their apogee to a fraction of the operational altitude, leaving all remaining manoeuvres to their integral liquid apogee motor; therefore, SDS 2-2 could not have jettisoned a second rocket body.

Все верно, но справедливости ради надо отметить, что прочие SDS-2 запускались на ОТМ, а не на ГСО, как USA-67

[Старый]

Все верно, но справедливости ради надо отметить, что прочие SDS-2 запускались на ОТМ, а не на ГСО, как USA-67

Предполагается что SDS-2 делался на хьюзовской геостационарной платформе 389
 http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sat/hs-389.htm
 и имел встроеный апогейный двигатель.
 При запуске на ОТМ он доварачивал наклонение с 57 до 63 град и поднимал апогей.

[Sharicoff]

Это я помню. Смысл тезиса Молчана в том, что у всех SDS-2 был одноступенчатый разгонник, который приподымал апогей до середины, а дальше (с доворотом плоскости) работала бортовая ДУ. И только у USA-67 был двухступенчатый РБ. Молчан считает, что эта лишняя ступень разгонника - неспроста.

[Старый]

С другой стороны у STS-38 была очень низкая орбита, необычно низкая для геостационарных миссий, что указывает на очень тяжёлую ПН.

[Старый]

И только у USA-67 был двухступенчатый РБ. Молчан считает, что эта лишняя ступень разгонника - неспроста.

Откуда там двухступенчатый РБ? Говорю же: у него бортовой апогейный двигатель.

[Sharicoff]

Откуда там двухступенчатый РБ? Говорю же: у него бортовой апогейный двигатель.

Откуда-откуда... Оттуда:

20935    STS 38    1990-097A    
20963    USA 67    1990-097B    
20964    USA 67 R/B(1)    1990-097C    
20965    USA 67 R/B(2)    1990-097D

А бортовая ДУ была, куда ж без нее.

[Старый]

Откуда-откуда... Оттуда:

20935    STS 38    1990-097A    
20963    USA 67    1990-097B    
20964    USA 67 R/B(1)    1990-097C    
20965    USA 67 R/B(2)    1990-097D

А бортовая ДУ была, куда ж без нее.

Опс! Нифига себе! А я и забыл...
Значит тут чтото не то. Не могло быть у 389-й платформы двухступенчатого разгонника.
 У неё, кстати, апогейный двигатель жидкостный.

[Sharicoff]

Причем РБ был твердотопливный, обе ступени.

[Sharicoff]

4. The Story of Prowler Emerges
A 2004 news report on a controversial U.S. stealth satellite program revealed that an unacknowledged second satellite had been launched on STS 38: "an experimental and highly classified satellite called 'Prowler'," that had "stealthily maneuvered close to Russian and presumably other nations' communications satellites" in geosynchronous orbit.

Речь идет вот об этой статье:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6687654/

Мало-мальски содержательная часть выделена желтым. Все остальное - имхо - это очередное "братцы, от солнца отломился кусок и летит к нам!!"  :?

What is America's top-secret spy program?[/size]
Experts think Democrats objected to satellite weapon

By Robert Windrem
Senior investigative producer
NBC News
updated 12/9/2004 6:22:30 PM ET

NEW YORK — What is the hush-hush intelligence project that apparently costs a fortune and has angered key Democratic senators?

Intelligence experts speculate that the highly classified endeavor is a top-secret satellite that would, or perhaps already can, intercept and shut down other countries' spy satellites.

The debate over the project leaked into the open on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, when Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, publicly complained that an unnamed spy project was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive."

Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators — Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon — refused to sign a congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities. But Rockefeller declined to discuss the precise nature of the project, saying that would have to wait until the Senate could go into closed session.

After a frenzied round of press inquiries on Thursday, Rockefeller's office released a statement saying, "Any assertion about classified intelligence programs based on Senator Rockefeller's statement is wholly speculative."

The statement, which was characterized as a clarification of Rockefeller's remarks on the Senate floor, implied that he considered the project dangerous only because it was so costly.

"Senator Rockefeller's reference to this program, which was fully vetted and approved by security officials, makes the point that continuing to fund an enormously expensive, unjustified, and wasteful program is dangerous to our national security," the statement read. "He believes these funds should be spent on other far more critical intelligence programs."

Mum's the word
Other members of the committee and spokesmen at the nation's intelligence agencies declined to comment on the controversy.

"We have no comment on classified intelligence matters," Paul Gimigliano, the CIA's acting director of public affairs, told NBC News.

"Since Senator Rockefeller did not specify which program was involved or even identify which agency, we are not commenting," said Rick Oborn, director of public affairs at the National Reconnaissance Office, which manages America's spy satellites.

But that didn't stop the speculation.  Even though much of the technology is highly classified, enough of it is out in the open that intelligence experts can comment on it, usually on condition of anonymity.

"It almost has to be a spy satellite," said Jeffrey T. Richelson, an intelligence historian who has written nearly a dozen books on spy technology. "The cost element Rockefeller talks about would indicate that."

Subtler technologies
Back in the 1990s, President Clinton helped kill earlier anti-satellite programs, also known as "asats." In those programs, U.S. satellites would take out foreign satellites using "space mines" or lasers.

But the current technology, according to intelligence experts, may be much more subtle.  There have been various programs based on the technology, some unclassified and dressed up as U.S. defensive measures, others highly classified.   One unclassified program, called the Counter Surveillance and Reconnaissance System (CSRS, pronounced "Scissors") was recently held up by Congress, according to Defense Daily.

The program was aimed at blocking an adversary's access to commercial or government space resources.  It was one of a few concepts on the table for offensive counterspace operations, where the United States actively works to counter an adversary's access to space, said the paper.

"That program is stopped," Defense Daily quoted the Air Force Space Command's chief, Gen. Lance Lord, as saying. "The idea to look at that mission area is still open."

'Prowler' at work
The United States has long been interested in such offensive programs, launching an experimental and highly classified satellite called "Prowler" on the space shuttle Atlantis  November 1990.

Prowler stealthily maneuvered close to Russian and presumably other nations' communications satellites in high Earth orbit, 24,000 miles (38,400 kilometers) up. These satellites are ideal targets.  They are at much higher altitudes, and thus difficult to track visually. Most of the key military satellites are in this orbit — relay satellites that transmit imagery uplinked from spy satellites, military communications satellites and electronic eavesdropping satellites that target terrestrial microwave communications.

Prowler gathered all manner of data on the high-Earth-orbit satellites: their size, measurements, radar signature, mass and the frequencies on which they relay their data.   Now experts suggest that the United States may be trying to use, or has already succeeded in using, that stealth technology to "negate" an adversary's satellite communications.

A satellite using such technology would not have to jam the other satellite's signals, strictly speaking.  Knowing how its communications systems were configured, the satellite could simply step in front of it and block its signals.  In fact, one expert said Prowler did just that in tests using U.S. communications satellites, without being detected.

How close can such a U.S. satellite get to another satellite? Within about a foot (30 centimeters), the expert said. The Prowler technology could even allow the satellite to maneuver close to the target without receiving data from Earth.  Once it came within a certain range of the target, it resorted to an internal computer program.

Is it war?
Many in the arms control community have long worried about such an anti-satellite program, saying that, particularly in time of crisis, such an operation could be construed as a hostile act and the first phase of a space war.

"The best asat is not a weapon that detonates next to an enemy satellite," said William E. Burrows of New York University, author of "Deep Black," a book on spy satellites. "Instead, it would be a signal that would tell the satellite to take the rest of the afternoon off."

Sending even defensive satellite weapons into orbit could start an arms race in space, warned John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, who has studied anti-satellite weapons for more than three decades. Pike said other countries would inevitably demand proof that any weapons were only defensive.

"It would present just absolutely insurmountable verification problems, because we are not going to let anybody look at our spy satellites," Pike said. "It is just not going to happen."

Robert Windrem is an investigative producer for NBC News.

[Sharicoff]

Речь идет вот об этой статье:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6687654/

А, ну собственно ответ номер 3 в этой теме.