WASHINGTON John Pike of the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists is no stranger to controversy, and his latest move is no exception.
In years past, Pike, head of FAS Space Policy Project, has published pictures of classified facilities on its website.
He also has obtained the first details of military space projects like the Titan Launch Dispenser that forms the basis of an interim module for the beleaguered space station, and released thousands of pages of declassified documents into the public domain.
Now Pike is at it again, publishing the first private spysat images of North Koreas ballistic missile launch pad.
Project 'Public Eye'
Pikes group released the pictures under a new project called Public Eye, wherein FAS will be buying just like any other customer selected images from space of ground sites and other targets that in Pikes words support "the application of imagery intelligence to public policy."
The satellite that will be providing the Public Eye images is the Ikonos, launched last fall by Space Imaging, Inc.
Cameras aboard the satellite can photograph objects on the ground in 1-meter resolution, about 3 feet across. Previously, only military satellites had that detailed a view -- and those images were not available to the public.
"We intend to extend our analysis of nuclear, missile and related special weapons facilities around the world," Pike told space.com.
And, by the way, he's not too impressed with that North Korean missile base.
"It's evident from this imagery that North Korea lacks the physical infrastructure needed to develop reliable long range missiles," Pike said.
"The threat is primarily political rather than military, requiring mainly a political rather than a military response," he added.
Under the Public Eye project, Pike's group plans to buy about a dozen satellite photos from Space Imaging over the next several weeks and publish their analysis on the web.
The cost runs about $2,000 per image, Pike said.
Space imaging CEO John Copple said he was happy with Pike's initiative. "Mr. Pike has previously used satellite imagery to perform his analysis and we are pleased he chose to purchase a Carterra (their trade name for the commercial Ikonos imagery) product to perform his recent analysis," Copple told space.com.
"These products provide him the ability to update information he was previously unable to accomplish," he said.
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