This post is from August 2006. Facts and links may have changed since. See more from that month

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Want To See Two Spy Satellites?

You may have to squint a little.

The image, of the IGS 1B and Lacrosse 4 satellites moving across the night sky, was taken by Macro Langbroek.

The SEESAT list has a fascinating discussion about the shape and configuration of the Lacrosse 5 satellite, which periodically performs a “disappearance trick.”

Most observers seem to think the trick is a quirk of a design feature unrelatd to stealth, such as the placement of solar panels.

Other satellites, of course, are intended to be stealthy. FOW Allen Thomson has created A Stealth Satellite Sourcebook that is quite the place to start on the subject.

Jeffrey Lewis

Writing on ACW 2004–2026

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the founding publisher of Arms Control Wonk.com. He is the Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His also a non-resident affiliate at Stanford's Center for Security and International Cooperation and a Contributing Editor to Survival.

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