[BRIEF NOTE] Toronto's mystery satellites

[rfmcdonald]

Mystery satellites, satellites launched into Earth orbit without any information as to what they do or where they orbit or even any acknowledgment that they exist, do exist. As noted in The New York Times in 2008, there's a large number of amateur astronomers--and, mentioned only at the end, other observers--who track them down. They call satellite watching a hobby, no matter that it's profoundly math- and time-intensive

When the government announced last month that a top-secret spy satellite would, in the next few months, come falling out of the sky, officials said that there was little risk to people because satellites fall out of orbit fairly frequently and much of the planet is covered by oceans.

But they said precious little about the satellite itself.

Such information came instead from Ted Molczan, a hobbyist who tracks satellites from his apartment balcony in Toronto, and fellow satellite spotters around the world. They have grudgingly become accustomed to being seen as "propeller-headed geeks" who "poke their finger in the eye" of the government's satellite spymasters, Molczan said, taking no offense. "I have a sense of humor," he said.

[. . .]

In the case of the mysterious satellite that is about to plunge back to Earth, Molczan had an early sense of which one it was, identifying it as USA-193, which gave out shortly after reaching space in December 2006. It is said to have been built by Lockheed Martin and operated by the secretive National Reconnaissance Office.

Another hobbyist, John Locker of England, posted photos of the satellite on a Web site, galaxypix.com. John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a private group in Alexandria, Virginia, that tracks military and space activities, said the hobbyists exemplified fundamental principles of openness and of the power of technology to change the game.

"It has been an important demystification of these things," Pike said, "because I think there is a tendency on the part of these agencies just to try to pretend that they don't exist, and that nothing can be known about them."

Torontoist's Amanda Happé reported on a recent forum that Molczan co-hosted in Toronto.

On Thursday night, Molczan participated in a talk called "The Other Night Sky" at the Power Plant, in conjunction with their ongoing summer exhibition, “Universal Code.” (Watch for our review of the exhibit, coming later this week.) He was joined by Trevor Paglen, an artist-geographer taking part in the exhibition with a large-scale installation featuring moving satellite orbits projected onto a massive blue globe.

Paglen is fascinated by the things that the American military doesn’t want us to see and the aesthetics of this secret world. He told the story of a covert satellite payload—code-named AFP-731—launched by the space shuttle Atlantis in February of 1990. About a month later, it was reported that this satellite had exploded in orbit and that the mission, whatever it had been, was a failure.

This is where Molczan enters Paglen’s story, as he and his network of observers began reporting an object in the night sky following the orbit and flying at the altitude of the “lost” satellite. Further research revealed that a patent had been filed in the United States that same month for a satellite signature suppression shield. As word spread of the discovery that AFP-731 (or “Misty,” as it is known) was likely not destroyed and was still racing around the globe carrying out undisclosed tasks, the satellite soon vanished from Molczan’s night sky. Those in the community believe that the unwanted attention he brought upon this secret payload had Toronto added to the suppression shield’s target locations.

Paglen wove the concept of democracy in with his narrative, something that both men consider to lie at the heart of this practice. Molczan believes that “space belongs to all of us” and that “the truth is out there for anyone to see.” Paglen recalled conversations the two have had, telling the audience that “Molczan reminded me that perhaps truth is sometimes like a point of light reflected in the evening sky, able to be seen by anybody who bothers looking through a telescope, [and] of the notion that, in a democracy, you’re supposed to have a right to your own opinion, but you're not supposed to have a right to your own facts.”

Yes, Molczan does do his observing from his Toronto balcony.

What is surprising is that Molczan is able to conduct his detailed monitoring from his downtown Toronto apartment. It would seem that a bright urban centre, rife with light pollution, is not the ideal place to track reflections in space. Torontoist asked Molczan about the viewing conditions in the city. “I’m a homebody," he responded. "I fantasize about spaceflight and all that, but the reality is that I’m happy to do this from my balcony or my bedroom window… Luckily I’m in one of the few high-rise buildings that has a roof that’s safe to visit, and I can go up there and have an amazing view of the sky, almost to the horizon in most directions. So, the city actually turns out to be not bad. It’s terrible for normal astronomy, if you want to see distant galaxies and that stuff, it’s horrible, but it’s quite tolerable. It could be better, but it’s tolerable."

This seemingly local and minor connection of one Torontonians to matters of utmost national security, this local attempt to defeat a certain kind panopticon even as many, many other Torontonian eagerly embraces others. this merger of a human instrument unnaturally separated from Earth into the mainstream--all of these things are wonderful.