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DigitalGlobe
This picture from DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite shows the launch pad at the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility in North Korea, as seen on April 9. Three dark-colored support vehicles are lined up on the launch apron. The rail-mounted mobile launch platform is toward the bottom of the pad, with an exhaust deflector that's designed to deal with the hot blast of launch.
While North Korean officials were showing off their preparations for a controversial satellite launch, DigitalGlobe's Quickbird satellite was snapping high-resolution pictures of the scene from far above. The images reveal how far the North Koreans have come — and how much can be gleaned about their intentions from orbit.
DigitalGlobe is a commercial satellite imagery provider, and QuickBird can provide pictures at a resolution of a half-meter (20 inches) per pixel. But you can bet that U.S. intelligence agencies are getting significantly better views of the Tongchang-ri Launch Center from their satellites.
North Korea is due to launch its Unha-3 ("Milky Way 3") rocket anytime between now and April 16, ostensibly to send an Earth-observing satellite known as Kwangmyongsong-3 ("Bright Shining Star 3") into a pole-to-pole orbit. The United States and its allies worry that the launch is really more of a test of North Korea's capability to launch intercontinental missiles as weapons.
International journalists, including a team from NBC News, were invited to visit the secretive hard-line communist nation this week for an on-the-ground assessment of the space mission. NBC News space analyst James Oberg said that in its current configuration, the booster is "not a military missile ... but it's darn close."
"This rocket is not a weapon, but it's maybe 98 percent of one," Oberg said. "It can be converted all too easily and all too frighteningly into a weapon, and they don't need it."
AmericaSpace's Craig Covault said the Tongchang-ri facility is clearly built to handle rockets much larger than the Unha-3. He quoted U.S. and South Korean intelligence analysts as saying they believe the complex could be used for tests of North Korea's "Satan" long-range ballistic missile, as well as a North Korean-Iranian booster with up to six engines clustered in the first stage.
"Iran and possibly North Korea plan to use the large new space launch booster to send Iranian and North Korean astronauts into space," Covault wrote. He lays out a Korean-Iranian missile development program that sounds positively scary.
North Korea might have been hoping that this week's visit by journalists would put Washington's fears to rest. But based on the feedback so far, it doesn't sound as if that'll be the case.
Here's tonight's report from NBC News' Richard Engel in Pyongyang:
A North Korean satellite is poised to launch to commemorate the 100th birthday of Kim Il-sung, but there are some doubts over whether it will ever go into orbit. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
... Here's a computer-generated animation of the expected launch from Analytical Graphics Inc.:
This animation from AGI shows the launch and possible path of the Unha-3 long-range rocket, aimed at putting the Kwangmongsong-3 satellite into orbit. Video courtesy of Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI). Visit http://agi.com/northkorea for additional resources.
... And here are more satellite pictures from DigitalGlobe:
An orbital view from DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite shows North Korea's Tongchang-ri Launch Facility from an altitude of 420 miles (680 kilometers).
James Oberg / msnbc.com (left) / DigitalGlobe (right)
The map of the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility that was displayed by the North Koreans during a news briefing (left) is compared with the overhead view from DigitalGlobe (right). The orientation of the satellite picture has been rotated to approximate the orientation of the map.
DigitalGlobe
This satellite view shows the horizontal processing building at the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility in North Korea, with a support vehicle parked in the dark-colored parking lot below the building.
DigitalGlobe
This DigitalGlobe satellite image, taken from orbit on April 9, shows the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility in North Korea. The structure in the lower part of the frame is known as the high-bay processing building, and the structures in the upper pat are housing facilities. VIP housing is at leff.
More about North Korea's space plans:
- North Korea says it's fueling rocket for launch
- What you need to know about the launch
- North Koreans desperate for Western approval
- Clues about North Korea's plans come to light
- North Korea shows off its launch pad and satellite
- Q&A: Rocket is 'not a military missile ... but it's darn close'
- World News: NBC gets a rare peek inside North Korea
- PhotoBlog: Pictures from the North Korea rocket tour
- Inside North Korea: Closely watched launch poses risks
- North Korea's launch sparks more worries than Iran's
- A look at North Korea's rocket technology
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Smile you're on (orbital) camera!
Say cheese!
Cheese? Where, I am hungry? Says the NK people.
This whole thing is cheesy- N Korea's actions are a joke and they're getting more media coverage than they deserve
Can it really be called Spying if we admit we're doing it? Shouldn't it be called observing?
I wounder how much baking soda and vinegar they need to launch that thing into space?
Thoughts to ponder on Thursday.
Being tortured by US government since 1996 by NSA and DAPHA who is experimenting me with mind control and physical torture with non lethal weapons. I have been in hospital 5 times and live in fort lauderdale florida please help Kevin Tarr 47 American - Flight 800 was blown up over Long Island by NSA that night on TBS was James Bond Series....Tortured since 1996 and not paid one penny.
So you are looking to get paid .... ??
Kevin, it's not the US Government, nor is it DAPHA. Dapha makes upholstery covering -- furniture. They're not into mind-control (well, their marketing people may be), and they don't torture you (unless you work there, in which case they OUTSOURCE the torture to remain in compliance with State and Federal laws regarding torture in the workplace).
I'm not surprised you've been in the hospital five times. You neglected to say that you were picked up and returned there four times, and now you're out again, at least until they trace your IP address.
And what's this bullshirt on your Facebook page about a "chiroproter" or "chiroporoter"?? Those are two completely DIFFERENT specialists! You also talk about "mond" control, when neither of the above two oil-rig supervisors DO mond control!!! It's MUD control! Drilling mud!
Guy, for God's sake, stay out of that Florida sun, drink plenty of water, and since you seem to be in Florida, George Zimmerman is the name of the guy who put the mond-control microchops in your brine.
If this is a medical emergency, please hang up and dial "911."
Kevin,
Based on reading your comments and Facebook info., you are in need of some serious help. If you are not on psychiatric meds, you should be and they will help those voices. You shouldn't be posting your personal address and info. all over Facebook either or asking for donations via Paypal. Please, get yourself some help and you will be much happier.
That sign post up ahead.
I hope the launch is a success ....
They have disclosed their intentions ....
Leave them alone ....
Everyone should integrate science into their lives ....
Pretty good U-Tube video Alan ....
Thanks ....
What if the so-called 'Weather satellite' is in reality a nuke to drop on our heads in a moments notice by taking it out of orbit? NK has NOT signed onto the Space Treaty that was ratified in 1967.
What if Mitt Romney is in reality...the Flying Spaghetti Monster and is hell bent on reducing the known universe to silly putty? ... the mind reels.
I sure am glad they are so trustworthy that, we do not have to worry about them, lieing about their intentions
They just idotically broadcast all their plans. Woo I am shaking in my boots with our 20,000 nukes.
Okay, why would N. Korea or Iran need to put people in space? Welcome to the 1960s....
So they can escape the tyrany of living in NK and Iran.
Same reson we do it get the hell off this rock and escape the tyrany of the united states government!!
People vote with their feet 'freedom_monger'.
You tell me what country various emigres and refugees, often at great risk from their oh-so-kind original governments or dangerous natural conditions, try to reach?
Which one can you just walk across the border at customs if you want to leave, no barbed wire, mines or gun towers, with little more than a goodbye?
I'm waiting.
(hint: it's the same allegedly 'tyrannical' country for both questions)
You've heard North Korea is entering a team into the Olympics for the first time ever?
They've made Synchronized Sobbing an Olympic event.
Ha! You are right, except that they have been in the Olympics many times, but they ARE very good crybabies.
I heard their team has a lot of turnover.
Their Olympic Rifle team though is top notch, 5 million athletes.
Prison states should not have nuclear weapon capabilities.... DUH!
Hope their mission is a success! It seems that the US, S. Korea and Japan are worried with N. Korea's agenda. Don't these countries have missiles and rocket launchers too? Are they just jealous of their next door neighbor? By their rhetoric, they have played into the hands of the N. Koreans by giving them world wide attention. Just what the doctor ordered.
So what if the so-called "Weather Satellite" is in reality a nuke? Ever think of that?
Guess you never learned anything from watching all those James Bond movies!
Who cares if it is! u think we dont have anything in space like that?
"Who cares if it is! u think we dont have anything in space like that?"
We don't. And I don't just mean the Outer Space Treaty (though there is that, too), but because orbiting nuclear weapons just aren't as practical as people think.
Just as manned spacecraft can de-orbit to land at a specific place only at certain times, nukes in orbit won't always be able to reach a given target except at certain predictable (by anyone) times. You'd have to have a seriously large number of nuke platforms in (still known and predictable) orbit, to insure that all the places you might want to hit are in range of at least one of them, at any given time.
Land and sea based ballistic missiles can launch at any time suborbitally to any target within the missile's range. And in the case of sea-based (submarine) launched missiles, you don't usually even know where they are.
The real question is. how much do you trust the North Korean government, compared to the existing nuclear powers? (Or the government of Iran, for we could see a similar scenario form them in 5-10 years...)
Remember, they don't have to have the kind of overwhelming capability of the US or Russia, the capacity to take out even two or three targets in the US is enough to be persuasive. Even though they know we could turn their entire country into a glazed parking lot in response, they also know, despite their rhetoric about us, that it's highly improbable that we'd seriously risk even losing one city here.
And if there's an (unarmed) re-entry vehicle they can track to an imaginary sea target, a 'failed' satellite launch could actually be a successful ballistic missile test...
Whether It lands in your lap or 2 miles away, your just as dead!
We can spy on them with our satellite which we launched with a rocket - but ..... Yea...
If you look like a duck, walk like a duck and talk like a duck - guess what?
Its NK sad attempt at launching a missile?
You get eaten by a starving North Korean
"It shows how far North Korea has come" ~ MSNBC
When the majority of North Koreans are starving - not very far!!!
I am surprised they even have computers to launch this missile.
From watching various documentaries on YouTube, they have lots of Dell computers in their universities that were sold/given to them by China I'm sure. I have no problem with them having computers, but it's funny how they are using American brand-name computers, albeit made in China, when they are constantly producing anti-American rhetoric! They're hypocrites, and they're lying with this "space" program.
And you got this info where so we can all see it? not utube right? you cant possible be that naive
Look up "inside North Korea" on YouTube and when independent filmmakers are being given tours of the universities, you will see rooms filled with Dell computers.
All of North Korean missile technology was acquired from Iran, and their nuclear technology came from Pakistan who stole it from the west.
I don't know, Rick Cain4150. While I don't doubt there is plenty of sharing going on, I think NK has had to develop a lot of this failure on their own, but I guess that's done more easily when a nation pours all of their resources into it.
Why do we care?
Because the so-called "weather satellite" could actually be a nuke to be used against us for blackmail someday. Or just drop it on DC in a moment's notice.
Blackmail, probably. Possibly nuking Washington DC one day? It would never happen.
Dude...this is the third time you've brought this up. Calm down and take your medication. They know as well as we know if they did something like that they would be reduced to glass in under 15 minutes...think Trident.
And as I noted to someone else, one nuclear weapons satellite simply cannot hit any particular target at just any time.
The weather satellite they claim is atop the missile is probably in reality a nuclear weapon set to orbit in space so they can drop it on our heads in a moments notice or blackmail us.
The USSR and USA agreed over 50 years ago(1967) with the 'Space Treaty' not to nuclearize space and put weapons into orbit (or other WMD's).
But the NK's have NOT signed on to such a deal.
So they could be launching a nuke into space to blackmail anyone they feel is necessary.
That being us.
To bad Drax Industries was fictional, we could just blown it up as soon as hit orbit. But, wait we did something called SDI or "star wars" but as usual we couldn't get it. Or did we?
I'm sorry it was supposed to be 'The man with the Golden Gun". and, what it worse I'm a James Bond fan.
Just shoot it down.
It's a sad, sad commentary when the North Korean nut jobs spend billions of dollars showing off massive weapons in elaborate displays to its people while the people themselves literally are eating GRASS to feel full . . . how much more despicable can it get?
Too bad North Korea doesn't have any oil, otherwise we would have liberated them by now.
This will be another opportunity for the US to use it's new satellite it has that is designed to disable other satellites. I give this Korean launch a zero percent chance of complete success. Sure the rocket "Might" reach space orbit but there's no way the satellite will become operational. Not happening
It would be cool if that satellite could chunk other satellites back to where they came from. "Oh rook, space threw up our saterrite!"
In the first image after the video, the caption says, "An orbital view from DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite shows North Korea's Tongchang-ri Launch Facility from an altitude of 420 miles (680 kilometers)." Quickbird is not at 680 kilometers however. In fact, none of DigitalGlobe's satellites are at that altitude. GeoEye's satellites ARE however. So I don't know if you meant to say Ikonos instead of Quickbird, or if you meant 482 kilometers for Quickbird's altitude....?
Too much attention given to Korea. Blah.
I voted "none of the above" on the little poll up there because my response is that I think it is a lie, like so many other things that come out of NK. I don't get NK; they are so unbelievably non-productive as a nation when the world knows that they have the resources and the brainpower to do great things. But no, their government is nothing but a bunch of shakedown artists who blow what little bit of money they have on rockets and nuclear weapons for "prestige" when they would be better served spending it on, gee I don't know, proper farming equipment? Modernized factories? Tourism? More stylish clothing?
Ahhhh just like the good old US of A thay lie to us to.So should we over through our government to? Your statement rings true for both NK and the USA
Think Panem (of Hunger Games).
What's Washinton D.C. called again? Oh yeah, the Capitol. Coincidence...methinks not.