🚀 go-pugleaf

> On the other hand, several public sources have reported that
> resolutions good enough to read the brand of coffin nails
> being smoked by the guard on duty in Moscow are in use. 

Nonsense, assuming you're talking about orbiting reconaissance
satellites (as opposed to low-flying aircraft).  Do a little math and
determine the visible-light resolution limit of a 2-meter diameter
mirror (roughly the largest that could be comfortably carried inside the
payload fairing of a Titan from Vandenburg) at a distance of 500 miles
(the perigee of a KH-11 orbit plus allowance for slant range).

You'll end up with something on the order of a foot, which just so
happens to be the resolution of the KH-11 aircraft carrier construction
pictures that showed up in Av Week last year.

Making a project secret doesn't exempt it from the laws of physics. (Too
bad the SDI folks don't realize this. :-))

Phil