GOOGLESAT MANIA CONTINUES

It’s been a week since Defense Tech reader DS dug through Google’s archives of satel­lite pic­tures, and found a lonely airstrip out by Nevada’s leg­endary Area 51. Apparently, you guys can’t get enough of the pics. The tide of, um, inter­est­ing Googlesat images keeps pour­ing into Defense Tech HQ.
In honor of Passover, per­haps, reader DC uncov­ers this Hebraically-​​themed shape, carved out of the desert near Groom Lake. “It’s a bomb­ing tar­get, set up to sim­u­late a SAM [surface-​​to-​​air mis­sile] or anti­air­craft berm,” says DS, exam­ing U.S. Geological Survey dia­grams. Strangely, the tar­gets are often labelled with people’s names. This one’s called “David.“
JC sends in this link, from near Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Zoom on the top right of the image, north­west of the base, and you’ll find the “Test Track where they launch ‘things’ at Mach 10,” JC claims. A lit­tle fur­ther over, he notices this cryp­tic black bar.
Taking a sec­ond look at one of the images from the last Googlesat onslaught, DS notices that the pic­ture looks a whole lot like this over­head view of Nellis Air Force Base — the head­uqarters for the Predator robotic squadrons. DS even finds a close-​​up, show­ing planes on the run­way.
“Are we ready for a Googlesat con­test?” pants JA. “How about a search for an air­craft in flight?“
THERE’S MORE: Game over! Reader NW reminds us that Slashdotters found some mid-​​air plane pic­tures a cou­ple of weeks back, includ­ing this one, where you can pan left, and watch the plane gain alti­tude.
AND MORE: This Googlesat pic­ture of a plane in flight “is over my pre­vi­ous res­i­dence in Richardson, Texas,” says McZ.

April 28th, 2005 | Bizarro, Space | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.