Topaz, Orion, Nemesis, Raven, Intruder. They sound like code names and they are. But the US spy satellites that they refer to 鈥� revealed as part of a leak by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden 鈥� were never much of a secret.
On 29 August, a of the US Director of National Intelligence鈥檚 $52.6 billion budget justification for 2013, leaked by Snowden. It says such satellites were key in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden 鈥� and reveals the names for a bunch of them.
But of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics says enthusiasts, who track satellites with ground telescopes, already knew these ones existed, just not their names. 鈥淚f you put a bright thing in the night sky, you can declare that it鈥檚 a secret all you like, but people can still look up and see it,鈥� says McDowell.
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He thinks it鈥檚 time the US acknowledged its spy satellite programme is no secret.
This article will appear in print under the headline 鈥淣ot-so-secret spies鈥�
