After decades of satellite surveillance by foreign governments and analysts, North Korea has sent its first spy satellite on a global orbit with a message to the world: we can watch you too.

  • Ghyste@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    I know others are commenting that the same views can be seen on publicly available satellite imagery, but that’s missing the point.

    The concern is that NK has reached a milestone in orbital rocketry and while a basic so-called spy satellite has taken beginner level photos, they have figured out how to put a payload into a solid orbit. That information works for ICBMs as much as it works for tinker toy payloads.

    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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      11 months ago

      ICBM are both an easier and harder task than putting satellites into orbit.

      Easier in that the math and fuel requirements are a lot easier if you don’t need a stable orbit so much as a trajectory.

      Harder in that your payload is likely considerably heavier if you want to make the ICBM worth the cost.

      To use video game terminology: the two are different branches of the same tech tree with a potential join for an endgame super weapon (rods from god)

      • Ghyste@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        It’s still a lot of the same math. A successful launch like this is a lot learned for all applications.

      • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        If the game goes to k3 you eventually get rkms and instant death mode where your enemies martydom with a vacuum decay

  • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    And we are just going to pretend they can use it 24/7, because they have so many partners around the world. In reality it’s like 20 minutes a day or less.

  • gigachad@feddit.de
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    11 months ago

    It’s over guys, the enemy found out the position of the white house. With their secret technology they could find out that the color of the white house is indeed white.

  • The_one_and_only@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I don’t know for sure, but can’t you find pictures of the White House with Google? Seems a lot cheaper…

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    On Tuesday North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong Un had reviewed spy satellite photos of the White House, Pentagon and U.S. aircraft carriers at the naval base of Norfolk.

    North Korea last week successfully launched its first reconnaissance satellite, which it has said was designed to monitor U.S. and South Korean military movements.

    Since then state media has reported the satellite photographed cities and military bases in South Korea, Guam, and Italy, in addition to the U.S. capital.

    Chad O’Carroll, founder of the North Korea-focused website NK News, said of the KCNA reports in a post on X.

    Jeffrey Lewis, another researcher at CNS, said a state media photo of Kim examining the satellite images with his daughter suggest they may be panchromatic, a type of black-and-white photography that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light.

    The United States and South Korea have condemned the satellite launch as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any use of ballistic technology.


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