Spy Satellites That Spy On Satellites
`This is the first photograph taken by a microsatellite of another object in space that has ever been released to the general public. The object near the center is the upper stage of a Minotaur I rocket that was used to launch the Experimental Satellite System-11, commonly known as XSS-11. The photograph was taken by the digital “witness camera” aboard XSS-11, a dishwasher-size microsatellite developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
XSS-11 was launched in April and has since conducted numerous “proximity operations”�approaching and maneuvering around the spent Minotaur rocket stage at distances as close as 500 meters (the distance at which this photo was taken, about a third of a mile). Over the next year, the spacecraft will rendezvous with several other U.S.-owned dead or inactive objects in space.’
