>SNIP>
>>Our U-2’s at 20 miles altitude can take a picture of you on the ground, and our satellites do a good job also. The probglem is that most of this stuff is underground.
>>
>SNIP
>Tom,
>
>I remember when the first shuttle went up and there was telemetry indication that some of the heat shield tiles had fallen off. The U.S. used cameras in Hawaii to learn exactly which tiles were missing as it flew overhead. That always impressed me and also provided a glimpse of just what capabilites really existed.
>That was back in the '79-'80 timeframe. One can only imagine what can be done today!

Jim;

I know! When I was in the Air Force (until 1967) we could take a picture of a car at 20 miles altitude. It was fuzzy but you could see it was an automobile. I heard a few years ago (about 1990) you could read the license plate from that distance. Who knows about today! :)

One of the reasons I did not reenlist in the Air Force was I could not handle all the information I had to work with. When I left in 1967 the United States could destroy the world 7 ½ times with nuclear weapons and the Russians 4 ½ times. Things have really improved. Today the United States can destroy the world 770 times and the Russians 400 times. How times have improved!

Tom