Iran secretly acquired a Chinese spy satellite in late 2024 that has allowed it to target U.S. military bases across the Middle East during the current war, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, an account Beijing dismissed as untrue.
The TEE-01B satellite, built and launched by Chinese company Earth Eye Co, was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force after it was launched into space from China, the report said, citing leaked Iranian military documents.
Iranian military commanders directed the satellite to monitor major U.S. military sites, the newspaper said, citing time-stamped coordinate lists, satellite imagery and orbital analysis. The images were taken in March before and after drone and missile strikes on those locations, the Financial Times said.
The TEE-01B satellite, built and launched by Chinese company Earth Eye Co, was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force after it was launched into space from China,
So an Iranian satellite.
No, if you buy a car from Ford, it is still theirs. /s
Dude, you can even use free public images to figure out where to hit the US. This is not a tactical level, where a low latency is of importance. Whoever came up with this, but it sounds like made up
Edit: some context. EO (Earth Observation) satellites are usually in a sun synchronous orbit for various reasons. A satellite in LEO takes 90min per orbit, while earth is turning below it, so with every orbit, another strip of earth is seen (besides the poles, which is why many ground stations are located in the north). It takes a satellite roughly 13 days until it is back on the original position. So while this is good for general surveillance of areas, one satellite is never enough to do proper tactical analysis, including battle damage report. Orbits can be adjusted, but this is a very expensive maneuver, as fuel is not limitless. You use this mainly for high emergency cases or if you are bound to collide with another satellite.
I have no doubt that Iran has acquired a satellite of China or Russia, and they will probably have done some images of the ground, but this is not James Bond. One satellite is basically useless.
Did someone expect Iran to fight with their eyes closed? Why is this news? This is like reporting that a sniper used a scope.
Ideally, like science, good journalism doesn’t have to be surprising, just true.
USA can’t really stop them. Nobody listens anymore, is impressed much by threats or how quickly they fold with some economic pressure.
They didn’t mind it when it was russia doing it, even lifted sanctions…
this was expected
