Advertisement

Atlantis Crew Sees Ships, Planes Clearly Using Pentagon Optics

Share
From Associated Press

Atlantis’ space scouts said Friday that they can see ships, planes and other military targets surprisingly well from orbit, although better optics could improve their vision.

“I’m surprised at what I can see, more than what I expected to,” astronaut Mario Runco Jr. said during a news conference.

Runco said the crew has been able to pick out large ships and airplanes with the high-powered cameras and binoculars supplied by the Pentagon.

Advertisement

“Whether I can identify those ships as particular types, or airplanes, I haven’t been able to do, mainly because the imagery I’m getting is kind of at the limit of its resolution,” Runco told reporters.

Despite such technical limitations, and fickle weather, astronauts easily could serve the military in space, Runco said.

“The observations we have made so far have been quite remarkable in terms of what we’ve accomplished in the past,” Runco said. “They still have a long way to go, however, in terms of the equipment.”

Earlier Friday, the astronauts peered through clouds at ships and other military craft in Cuba, Australia and Florida.

The two veterans aboard the shuttle said they have never seen so much haze from orbit.

“The atmosphere is much hazier now than it was as we remember,” shuttle commander Frederick D. Gregory said.

Gregory and Story Musgrave last flew in space two years ago. Since then, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines has erupted and spewed gases and volcanic ash into the atmosphere. Scientists believe that caused the increased haze.

Advertisement

Runco, a Navy lieutenant commander, zoomed in on U.S. military ships in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay but had trouble spotting targets at Air Force bases in central Florida and Oahu, Hawaii, because of clouds.

The Pentagon assigned the observing experiments to the 10-day flight to see how well astronauts can spot ships, tanks and aircraft from orbit. Similar exercises were conducted during previous shuttle missions that were classified.

Advertisement