A Spy Satellite Is Somewhere Above Your Head Right Now

By John Oncea, Editor

A spy satellite is somewhere above your head right now, collecting images and gathering intelligence on whatever it sees below it.

I learned of legendary actor Gene Hackman's death just before I set off writing this article and immediately went down a Hackman rabbit hole. Having acted in nearly 80 feature films during his five-decade-long career I'm hard-pressed to pick a favorite. So instead of one, here are my 11 favorite Hackman films in chronological order:

• Bonnie and Clyde, 1967
• The French Connection, 1971
• The Poseidon Adventure, 1972 *
• Superman, 1978 (but only for this scene – Otisburg. Otisburg? Otisburg?? OTISBURG?!)
• Hoosiers, 1986
• Mississippi Burning, 1988
• The Quick and the Dead, 1995
• Crimson Tide, 1995
• Enemy of the State, 1998
• The Replacements, 2001
• The Royal Tenebaums, 2001

* According to The Guardian, “In an interview with Vanity Fair, Ben Stiller talked about working on The Royal Tenenbaums with Gene Hackman and finally getting up the nerve, two days before the shoot ended, to tell the intimidating Hackman how much he loved The Poseidon Adventure and how it changed his life and made him want to become a film-maker. As Stiller recalled, Hackman gruffly responded: ‘Oh yeah, money job.” An iconic role during the heyday of disaster movies and Hackman took it for the paycheck!

It’s Enemy of the State that – stay with me on this – is going to serve as a springboard into the topic of this article: spy satellites.

At The Movies

In the movie, according to IMDB, “Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) is a mild-mannered lawyer who works in Washington, D.C. He is on the trail of a kingpin named Paulie Pintero (Tom Sizemore). Meanwhile, a politician named Thomas Brian Reynolds (Jon Voight) is negotiating with Representative Phillip Hammersley (Jason Robards, Jr.) about a new surveillance system with satellites.

“But Hammersley declines; Reynolds has Hammersley killed, but the murder is caught on tape, and the taper is chased by Reynolds’ team of NSA agents. The guy must ditch the tape, so he plants it on Dean (unbeknownst to Dean).

“Then, the NSA decides to get into Dean’s life which begins to fall apart all around him. With his wife and job both gone, Dean wants to find out what is going on. He meets a man named Brill (Gene Hackman) who tells him that Dean has something that the government wants. Dean and Brill formulate a plan to get Dean’s life back and turn the tables on Reynolds.”

Again, great film. Do yourself a favor and check it out if you haven’t seen it.

Art Imitates Life, Or Is It The Other Way Around?

As the summary notes, a key element of the government’s surveillance system is a powerful spy satellite that allows them to constantly monitor Dean’s movements and activities from high above, effectively making him an enemy of the state by utilizing advanced technology to track his every step. This visual representation of the satellite’s capabilities serves as a central theme highlighting the pervasive nature of modern surveillance technology.

Enemy of the State’s depiction of satellite surveillance capabilities was considered largely exaggerated in 1998. While some aspects like the use of tracking devices in clothing were plausible, the level of real-time, detailed tracking shown in the film was far beyond what was available to most government agencies at the time. The movie’s most unrealistic element was likely the ability to track individuals with high-resolution satellite imagery in real-time across large urban areas.

But is that still the case? Or has fact caught up to fiction when it comes to spy satellites?

Spying With Planes

According to Everything Everywhere Daily, “There is much that we don’t know about spy satellites because much of the information is classified. However, over time, information has been declassified and experts have been able to make educated guesses as to the current state of the technology.”

For example, we believe 10 countries currently have at least one spy satellite. We also know that while these satellites can gather an enormous amount of data, they do not possess the fantastical capabilities often attributed to them in movies.

Spy satellites, as a concept, predate the satellite age by a century. The idea of an Earth-orbiting artificial satellite was first proposed in the 19^th century as a way to spy on other countries, a task usually left to spies or traitors. Then, with the development of the hot air balloon, a spy could be sent up above a battlefield packed dense with soldiers together shoulder to shoulder to see what the enemy was up to.

“During the First World War, things became much more spread out, with front lines stretching out for miles,” Everything Everywhere Daily writes. “Moreover, artillery positions might be miles in the rear where artillery rounds could reach trenches but couldn’t be seen.”

Enter the airplane, specifically reconnaissance aircraft that would fly over enemy lines. Those aircraft were susceptible to enemy fire leading to the development of planes like the SR-71 Blackbird and the U2-Spy, both designed to avoid enemy surface-to-air missiles by flying faster and higher than the enemy could reach. Even those planes came with issues, however, as the whole Francis Gary Powers and the U2 incident proved.

The Surprising History Of Spy Satellites

The concept of reconnaissance satellites dates back to a 1946 RAND Corporation study proposing an Orbital Bombardment System, though the focus soon shifted to photographic intelligence. By 1955, the U.S. Air Force was developing a satellite for monitoring enemy military capabilities. The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 proved that space-based reconnaissance was viable.

The U.S. responded with the Corona program (1959–1972), the first successful reconnaissance satellite system, developed by the CIA, U.S. Air Force, and private contractors. Corona satellites, code-named Discoverer, used film-based cameras to capture high-resolution images of Soviet military sites. The first successful mission, Discoverer 14 (1960), carried up to 16,000 feet of lightweight film, with missions lasting 10–20 days.

The film was returned to Earth via reentry capsules, or buckets, equipped with parachutes. Aircraft such as the C-119 Flying Boxcar intercepted them in mid-air. While effective, film retrieval was costly and inefficient. In 1976, Keyhole-11 introduced electro-optical imaging, transmitting real-time digital images via secure downlinks using early charge-coupled devices. This advancement laid the foundation for modern digital reconnaissance.

“The Americans weren’t the only ones with a spy satellite program, writes Everything Everywhere Daily. “The Soviets had their program. Zenit satellites were the Soviet equivalent of Corona satellites. Zenit satellites were based on the Vostok human spacecraft and were film-based.”

Yantar series, which began in 1974 and has continued to the present, was successor to Zenit. It had improved imaging and electronic intelligence capabilities. While there is much we learned about the Soviet Union after it fell, one thing that wasn’t declassified was the spy satellites program because the Russian Federation picked it up.

Optical Reconnaissance Satellites And Resolution

Resolution in spy satellites refers to the smallest object distinguishable in an image, typically measured in centimeters per pixel. Higher resolution enables finer detail observation from space.

The exact capabilities of current military reconnaissance satellites are classified. However, it's estimated that modern U.S. spy satellites can achieve resolutions of approximately 10 centimeters per pixel, allowing identification of objects like vehicles but not smaller details such as text. For instance, the KH-11 series is believed to have imaging resolutions of 5–6 inches (12.7–15.24 centimeters), enabling the detection of objects 5 inches or larger on the ground, according to HowStuffWorks.

In contrast, writes 38 North, commercial Earth observation satellites offer lower resolutions due to regulatory restrictions. Companies like Maxar and Airbus provide imagery with resolutions around 30 centimeters per pixel, sufficient to identify larger objects like vehicles and buildings but lacking the finer detail of military-grade satellites.

A common misconception is that spy satellites can provide real-time, high-resolution imagery of any location on Earth at any time. In reality, optical satellites operate in low Earth orbit, moving at approximately 17,000 miles per hour. While they can be scheduled to image-specific locations, factors such as orbital paths, cloud cover, and lighting conditions can affect image availability and quality.

Recent developments in commercial satellite technology are narrowing the resolution gap. For example, EOI Space plans to offer 15-centimeter resolution imagery, enhancing the level of detail available to non-military users, EOI Space writes.

While military satellite resolution remains classified, estimates suggest capabilities around 10 centimeters per pixel. Commercial satellites, constrained by regulations, currently offer resolutions up to 30 centimeters per pixel, with advancements pushing this boundary.

And, unlike in Enemy of the State, satellites cannot provide live video with a bird’s eye view because they can’t hover in one spot.

Some Satellites Eavesdrop On Radio Signals

The NROL-44, a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launch, is one of the most powerful intelligence-gathering satellites, likely part of the Orion series. Unlike optical satellites, signal intelligence (SIGINT) satellites like NROL-44 operate in geosyncronous orbit, monitoring vast areas for military, naval, diplomatic, and missile-related communications.

Orion satellites are believed to have massive antennas—possibly 100 meters wide—capable of intercepting microwave signals by targeting emissions that extend beyond intended receivers. This technique, used since the 1970s Aquacade program, remains vital for intelligence collection today. Some SIGINT satellites are also placed in highly elliptical orbits for better coverage of polar regions.

A major challenge today is the overwhelming volume of data collected. Unlike the film-return era, modern optical and SIGINT satellites generate more intelligence than human analysts can process, increasing reliance on automation and AI.

Adding Artificial Intelligence To Spy Satellites

Everywhere Everything Daily writes, “Declassified documents have revealed the existence of an AI system used by the National Reconnaissance Office known as Sentient … a name that is in no way scary.”

Sentient is believed to automate the analysis of vast amounts of spy satellite data, using AI to quickly identify objects, detect changes, and recognize patterns indicating military activity or hidden infrastructure. This enhances intelligence assessments with greater speed and accuracy.

The NRO remains one of the most critical yet least discussed intelligence agencies. Currently, at least ten countries possess spy satellite capabilities, including the U.S., China, Russia, France, Israel, Italy, India, Germany, the U.K., and Spain.

Spy satellites play a crucial role in global intelligence gathering, operating largely unnoticed. Hundreds of satellites continuously monitor Earth’s surface and radio signals, with their data analyzed by powerful AI systems and intelligence professionals worldwide.