January 14, 2009
Craig Covault is Back - With Quite a Scoop
Secret inspection satellites boost space intelligence ops, Craig Covault, SpaceflightNow
"In a top secret operation, the U.S. Defense Dept. is conducting the first deep space inspection of a crippled U.S. military spacecraft. To do this, it is using sensors on two covert inspection satellites that have been prowling geosynchronous orbit for nearly three years. The failed satellite being examined is the $400 million U.S. Air Force/Northrop Grumman Defense Support Program DSP 23 missile warning satellite. It died in 2008 after being launched successfully from Cape Canaveral in November 2007 on the first operational Delta 4-Heavy booster."
Craig Covault joins Spaceflight Now
"Craig Covault, one of the world's most respected aerospace journalists, is joining the Spaceflight Now team as Editor-at-Large. With about 3,000 articles to his name and nearly four decades in the business, Craig will further strengthen Spaceflight Now's unrivaled coverage of the space program."
Posted by kcowing at January 14, 2009 7:40 AM
Glad to see you back Craig!! Keep up the good work!!
Posted by: Charlie at January 14, 2009 8:43 AMIt is great to see Craig Covault back reporting.
Posted by: john macco at January 14, 2009 8:57 AMOutstanding! I hope Craig will also be attending NASA press briefings as well. Said bye-bye to AWST last week.
Eric Fischer
Posted by: Eric Fischer at January 14, 2009 9:28 AM
The master is back, good to see your byline Craig!
Yes, it's good to see another top-rate article from Craig.
But the article refers to geostationary satellites, which I have always believed orbited at 22000 miles, so I'm a bit confused about the 25000 mile orbit mentioned.
A misprint?
SpaceflightNow has long been a "must read" for those seriously interested in space. Now, with the addition of Craig Couvault, its an "absolutely must read." We all benefit from having this authoritative voice back in the discussion.
Chris FYI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit
- from centre of earth 42,164 km (26141.68 miles*)
- from mean sea level (at equator) 35,786km =(22187.32 miles*)
*give or take a furlong!
Allow me a moment here to thank everyone who has commented this week (and also back in November) about how much all those messages have meant to me and my family.
Especially from folks like Warren --my ole NYT seat mate at KSC and Keith who has posted all of it ---what guys normally don't get to see till after they have died--or worse!
Please know that all of your messages are deeply--really--deeply appreciated as I make a transition I did not expect to make so soon after joining AWST, nearly 37 years ago.
And great thanks to my long standing friends at SpaceFlightNow.Com who really have been pioneers in serious news coverage on the web (no matter whether it is aerospace) --they were pioneers in use of this new media for coverage of any kind going back 10 years.
I am privileged they have allowed me to join them on what will be a growing news site, not just a "surviving" one as is unfortunately the case with all of print these days.
But I do ask just one thing---just one favor.
Please, Please, Please no minutia lessons here on "how high is up" .
Or in this case how high is GEO.
It is a totally legitimate journalism tool to round up big numbers for impact -like saying "nearly 25,000 mi. high" as I did in coverage of the remarkable DSP/Mitex caper still underway.
Folks this ain't my first rodeo.
And I really DO know how high GEO is--and said it with more specific numbers there high up in the article--again only using the about 25,000 mi. figure simply for impact.
Again thanks for all to everyone.
Craig Covault
AvWk Class of 72
