THE PUZZLING PROBLEMS OF PICTURES FROM SPACE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504320001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504320001-0
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The Puzzling Problems
Of Pictures From Space
SPOT satellite image of Chernobyl after the nuclear accident
By Tony Mauro
.Secretary Weinberger refused to say
whether the Sixth Fleet is steaming toward the
trouble zone, but the ABC News Space Cam-
era Unit reports that, indeed, the largest ves-
sels of the fleet have changed course and
headed south in the last 72 hours . .
The day when such a broadcast will
he possible is not far off-it could he as
soon as this spring.
Thanks to the little-noticed launch of
the French satellite SPOT l on Februarv
21, American news media have at their
fingertips a newsgathering tool of
mindhoggling-and troubling-potential.
Satellite remote sensing-taking im-
ages of Earth from space-will enable any
news organization willing to pay to order
pictures (actually digital images) that, de-
Time Mauro is Supreme Court and legal cor-
respondent for USA Today.
pending on location and cloud cover,
could show objects as small as 10 meters
(33 feet or so) in usable form: On clear
days and high-contrast land surface such
as deserts, resolution may be even better.
The satellite was pressed into service
May I. when all three major networks
clamored for-and got-images of the
damaged Soviet nuclear plant at
Chernobvl. Volcanoes, earthquake dam-
age and forest fires all could be illustrated
1 in a dramatic new way. If Iraq says it at-
tacked a port in Iran, but Iran denies it,
satellite imagery could resolve the dis-
pute. What does the closed Soviet city of
Gorki look like, or Kharg Island or the
hijacked Achille Lauro cruise ship? Did an
Afghan village really burn down? Satellite
imagerv could provide the answers.
The possibilities of satellite photogra-
phy are endless, and the nation's news
media are just beginning to daydream
about them. "A whole new world of
newsgathering is ahead," says ABC News
assignment editor Mark Brender, who
spent much of last year trving to interest
news organizations in the new technology.
Spot Image Corporation reportedly is
talking to all three commercial networks
about use of the French satellite's im-
ages-which could cost as little as $400
per pi ult.
But Brender, who heads a space com-
mittee of the Radio-Television News Di-
rectors Association, also wonders what
nught happen if remote sensing technol-
ogy is used to gather information about
U.S. or foreign military installations.
troop movements or even wars.
The next time a Grenada erupts. it
may matter less that reporters and cam-
eramen are not invited along; the
spacecam will have it covered.
The new technology may enable the
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504320001-0