Here's a view of the Space Shuttle you don't frequently see--a half-meter-resolution satellite photograph taken from orbit by GeoEye-1 shows Endeavour on the launchpad, ready to go.
On June 11, the GeoEye satellite photographed Endeavour as it sat in the service structure on Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. GeoEye-1 orbits at a speed of 4 miles per second, at a height of 423 miles above the planet, and shoots photographs with the highest civilian resolution available, one half meter.
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Pretty amazing - I can't wait until they have sattelites that can show realtime video (although I suppose such technology would never be made available for citizens anyway for security reasons).
Mark Foster | www.onewhitewedding.com
True, Mark. But think on this. Everyday boards,chips, and batteries get smaller, more efficient, and more capable. Not to mention cameras. I just read on a plane designed to fly for 5 years on solar! (PopSci, last week) and while a civilian built RCV would probably never match the capabilities of a government craft-and would certainly be subject to airspace, communications bandwidth, and as the article states, resolution, I do not think it is illegal to build or operate one for recreation or as a learning platform.