Misty (classified project)

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Misty is the name of a classified project to operate stealthy satellites conducted by the National Reconnaissance Office that has been the subject of atypically public debates about its worthiness in the defense budget since December 2004. The satellites are conjectured to be photo reconnaissance satellites.

The first satellite launched for the program was deployed on March 1, 1990 by the Space Shuttle Atlantis as part of Mission STS-36. Objects associated with the satellite decayed on March 31, 1990, but the satellite itself was seen and tracked later that year and in the mid-1990s by amateur observers. Misty is reported to have optical and radar stealth characteristics, making it difficult for adversaries to detect (and thus predict the times it would fly overhead).

Almost everything about the program is classified information--but two clues about satellite camouflage have been found in the patent literature. U.S. Patent #103,909 describes a "crossed skirt antiradar screen" for a satellite, and U.S. Patent #5,345,238 describes an inflatable balloon that can be made rigid on exposure to ultraviolet radiation that can serve to lower the radar and optical signature of the satellite. Once deployed, the cone-shaped balloon could be steered to deflect incoming laser and microwave radar energy by sending it off into outer space. While intriguing bits of high-tech handiwork, whether or not these stealthy ideas are actually used in the MISTY satellite series is not publicly known.

Porter Goss, a former Congressman and former CIA director, and George Tenet, former CIA director, have both vigorously supported successors to Misty, despite several attempts by Senators Dianne Feinstein and John D. Rockefeller IV to terminate the program. The primary contractor is Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

[edit] Launches

The program may have involved as many as two satellites:

The first deployed 1 March 1990 by STS-36 as USA-53 or 1990-019B (19600 kg)
The second launched 22 May 1999 as USA-144 or 1999-028A
A possible third was 19 October 2005 as USA-186 or 2005-042A; however, it was located by amateur satellite observers soon after launch, who positively identified it as a Keyhole imaging intelligence satellite. Keyholes are not stealthy.