2013-05-02
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2013-01-22
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![STS-38 mission patch, from Wikipedia.
Trevor Paglen, in Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes:
The mission was to insert a classified SDS communications spacecraft, code named QUASAR, into orbit. On the ‘public’ program patch, the white shuttle is on top, shadowed by a gray inverse image. According [to] NASA’s description of the patch, ‘the top orbiter…symbolizes the continuing dynamic nature of the Space Shuttle Program. The bottom orbiter, a black and white mirror image, acknowledges the thousands of unheralded individuals who work behind the scenes…this mirror image symbolizes the importance of their contributions’.STS-38 actually deployed two spacecraft. One was the QUASAR SDS spacecraft, which was a highly classified payload. The QUASAR deployment, however, also served as a cover story for an even more secret spacecraft, called PROWLER. PROWLER was a small, stealthy spacecraft designed to maneuver through the geostationary belt and to intercept and inspect other satellites. According to journalist Robert Windrem, PROWLER could accurately maneuver within a foot of target spacecraft, collecting information about size, radar cross section, mass, and operational details. In tests, PROWLER is reported to have shut down U.S. communication spacecraft undetected, proving the viability of stealthy anti-satellite (ASAT) operations. As Dwayne Day first reported, just as STS-38 carried two payloads, there were in fact two patches for the mission itself. The ‘secret’ patch was an inversion of the public patch. On the secret patch, the shadow shuttle was on top, signifying the shuttle’s true mission.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/f0e0c2fdc1a2297f5bfa74b5bec84785/tumblr_mh1uvei7R81qz4vjro1_500.png)
STS-38 mission patch, from Wikipedia.
Trevor Paglen, in Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes:
The mission was to insert a classified SDS communications spacecraft, code named QUASAR, into orbit. On the ‘public’ program patch, the white shuttle is on top, shadowed by a gray inverse image. According [to] NASA’s description of the patch, ‘the top orbiter…symbolizes the continuing dynamic nature of the Space Shuttle Program. The bottom orbiter, a black and white mirror image, acknowledges the thousands of unheralded individuals who work behind the scenes…this mirror image symbolizes the importance of their contributions’.
STS-38 actually deployed two spacecraft. One was the QUASAR SDS spacecraft, which was a highly classified payload. The QUASAR deployment, however, also served as a cover story for an even more secret spacecraft, called PROWLER. PROWLER was a small, stealthy spacecraft designed to maneuver through the geostationary belt and to intercept and inspect other satellites. According to journalist Robert Windrem, PROWLER could accurately maneuver within a foot of target spacecraft, collecting information about size, radar cross section, mass, and operational details. In tests, PROWLER is reported to have shut down U.S. communication spacecraft undetected, proving the viability of stealthy anti-satellite (ASAT) operations.
As Dwayne Day first reported, just as STS-38 carried two payloads, there were in fact two patches for the mission itself. The ‘secret’ patch was an inversion of the public patch. On the secret patch, the shadow shuttle was on top, signifying the shuttle’s true mission.
2012-10-02
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Robert Haddick, in Shipping Out for Foreign Policy. I found the article an interesting read on the possible eclipse of the aircraft carrier, due to long-range anti-ship missiles.
The article also reminded me of a 2002 naval exercise, where swarms of small, fast boats sank sixteen major warships.
(I found that article in a link in Foreign Policy’s interview with Michael Peck, entitled Aircraft Carriers In Space, which is also worth reading. Thanks, Simon.)
2012-03-31
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RAF Fylingdales, showing both the original 1960s radomes and the replacement early-1990s phased array radar building. The radomes were demolished once the newer radar was completed, around 1994.
More library photographs of Fylingdales (which I won’t post as they’re watermarked, I’ve posted quite enough radomes today, and because I’ve been cheeky with images already):
- Video and stills from Critical Past
- David Hurn’s photograph for Magnum
- A look inside the radome from Richard Baker
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You never forget the first time you see RAF Fylingdales, usually as you’re tootling along the A169 gently in thrall to the natural wonders of the North Yorkshire Moors. Could anything be more incongruous than those vast, dimpled radomes, those eerie ’golf balls’, blistering out of the green surroundings? It’s a sort of rude-awakening, where you’re reminded the world is less a James Herriot novel and more a Noam Chomsky essay. As the comedian Mark Thomas famously said, “It’s like giant Tarby has found his pitch and putt.”
For a 10-year-old, the sight is disconcerting and strange. But when the coach driver passes as close as the barbed-wire and steel allows him and, with a certain devilish glee, slows right down and turns his radio up, revealing a barrage of crackling static, stuck signals and unworldly whistling, strange turns to frightening.
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The three radomes at RAF Fylingdales, Yorkshire. Taken from this Flickr post based on a page in Jonathan Glancey’s Lost Buildings.
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An RAF officer in front of a completed radome at RAF Fylingdales.
Taken from this Flickr post of a page of Jonathan Glancey’s Lost Buildings.
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One of the radomes at RAF Flylingdales under construction. Edited from this Flickr post of a page of Jonathan Glancey’s book, Lost Buildings.
