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U.S., Russian Satellites Collide, Go Boom

Feb 12, 2009
It's getting crowded in space. A U.S. telecommunications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite smacked into each other in orbit over Siberia on Tuesday. According to NASA, no one was to blame for the unprecedented collision: "We don't have an air traffic controller in space."

Navy to Obscure Giant Swastika

Sep 27, 2007
The Navy plans to spend $600,000 to obscure a San Diego-area building complex that happens to be shaped like a swastika. The buildings have been around since the 1960s and for years no one seemed to mind, but that was before the advent of Google Earth.

Satellite Spy Agency Gets Bilked

Feb 7, 2007
Spy satellites provide much of the intelligence community's raw data, whether snapshots of Iran's nuclear facilities or al-Qaida training camps. David Kaplan has the story on how the National Reconnaissance Office, the $7.5-billion-a-year agency that builds and operates the satellites, has had to contend with potentially massive fraud among its many contractors.