In a message dated 4/2/99 07:06:54 AM EDT, kc4yer@amsat.org writes: > Actually DMSP is controlled by the Air Force. However its data is publicy > distributed by NOAA and some amateurs have built hardware to receive > signals from the DMSP satellites. During the Gulf War both the U.S. and > Iraqi forces used DMSP data for strategic and tactical planning. Nice of > the U.S. to provide that service to Iraq ... No one would argue about withholding this real time information during a time of military conflict. But USSPACECOM has taken the position of censoring the location of these objects during peacetime. What is sensitive here - the location of the satellite or the data that it produces? I still don't see the benefit to withholding the TLEs of the DMSPs during peacetime. > STEX may be much more classified then we've been led to believe. The program manager was requesting visual observations in January, 1999 after the decision to withhold the elsets was made in September, 1998? This makes no sense at all. STEX has 3 homepages. If this is sensitive then apparently the people who designed, built, launched and operate it were not informed. http://hyperspace.nrl.navy.mil/ATEX/STEX_ann_pic.htm http://home.att.net/~spetch/Stex/ http://members.aol.com/Franknite/stexmain.htm I cannot believe that these programs are suddenly sensitive. One final nit.... These discussion should probably be moved to UseSat-L: UseSat-L@lists.satellite.eu.org To subscribe to the UseSat-L list, send email to: UseSat-L-Request@lists.satellite.eu.org In the subject line, type "subscribe" (without the quotes) Cheers Don Gardner 39.1796 N, 76.8419 W, 34m ASL Homepage: http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/ Space Day - 6 May 1999; http://www.spaceday.com/