AMERICA’S spy satellites are not in the orbits the Pentagon says they are,
according to a respected space analyst. The errors will add to concerns over
George W. Bush’s plans to place weapons in space. If today’s satellite orbits
cannot be trusted, opponents reason, how will we verify the numbers of future
space-based anti-missile lasers and anti-satellite weapons?
The 1975 UN Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space
requires nations to maintain a registry of objects they launch, and to provide
the UN with copies. But Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge,…
