Satellites: A Discussion

Forty-one years ago, the Soviet Union launched the space race by putting the 184 pound metal ball named Sputnik into orbit. Nearly five thousand satellites later, today's space race is a crowded marathon. Companies are scrambling to launch satellites that will handle everything from telephone calls to tornado warnings. And the satellite revolution is just beginning. Thousands more are slated for launch over the next decade. CBS News producer and Technologist Dan Dubno spoke with CBS News Up To The Minute anchor Mika Brzezinski

about how satellites are changing our picture of the planet.

Daniel Dubno: Forty years in space has done a lot to change the world. Because of satellites, we can now make phone calls to speak to people around the world... see television programs presented from around the world. Satellites have helped us zoom in to the real weather we're having. It's saved millions of lives because weather forecasting has improved so much. Now, a whole series of companies are launching these satellites that are going to give us the same opportunity to look at the Earth the way the espionage agencies... the CIA and others have been looking at the world before.

This is a real picture of the earth that a company called Autometric helped us do. We could zoom in anywhere we wanted to. We decided to go to Silicon Valley towards San Francisco.

San Francisco

And we're zooming up along the mountains. What's incredible is that you're seeing the Earth in all it's three dimensions... all to scale. There you see San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge...

Golden Gate

over towards Angel Island... and stopping over the Bay Bridge.

What's great about this is that if there's a story in San Francisco, or anywhere... it will be increasingly possible for us to fly our viewers anyplace in the world using satellite imagery.

For example, in the Middle East, if we're interested in seeing what's going on in the Persian Gulf, we can use satellite imagery. Here we're going to fly up the Tigris and Euphrates towards Iraq...

Tigris

and as we get toward Baghdad we're going to come down on a former classified Russian spy-satellite image of Baghdad. As we zoom in, BOOM, that's the Presidential Palace where Saddam Hussein lives.

Mika Brzezinski: That's a lot easier getting in there than getting the inspectors in!

SPIN-2

Daniel Dubno: A company called SPIN-2, which is working with the Russians, is now providing some of the latest, best imagery. They get their images by flying right over the United States and the world. This image (left) is one of their satellites.

Mika Brzezinski: That's a spy satellite? It doesn't look remotely like one.

Daniel Dubno: That it is. It landed in Siberia, and it's full of information that we want to see here at home. So it's a really exciting age for journalists using this stuff. But satellites in space mean a lot for everybody. For example, you can use satellites to find out exactly where you are.

Say you're traveling around Baghdad... the map to Baghdad is not going to help you as much as a Global Positioning Satellite (G.P.S.) device. What's incredible about this, Garmin's Street Pilot,

Garmin

if you put in the right chip here, you'll not only find out precisely where you are anywhere in the world... but, down to the street, down to the restaurant...you'll find whatever you're interested in. It's all loaded on these devices.

Mika Brzezinski: You don't need your map? Your travel book?

Daniel Dubno: No, the G.P.S. is much better than those. Instead of a map, trying to "guess" where you are, you'll be able to know that precisely... And that's all because satellites are allowing you to determine your position. And your true location is "meeting up with data"...helping you find out where the restaurants are!

Mika Brzezinski: Every husband should have one of those, so they don't have to ask for directions!

Daniel Dubno: Exactly why I got it...

Mika Brzezinski: So this exists nowÂ… I'll put that on my Christmas shopping list.

Daniel Dubno: But another great thing that's going on now: A group called Iridium have already launched 63 satellites.Instead of having to find a cell site, you can use Iridium's new satellite phone anywhere on the Earth: reaching any one of their 66 satellites when the service officially is offered in September.

Iridium

Mika Brzezinski: So forget cell sites.

Daniel Dubno: You're talking to the satellites which are linking you all around the world.

Mika Brzezinski: Even on Mount Everest?

Daniel Dubno: Even on Mount Everest or anywhere you like, you can make cell and satellite phone calls using this new technology.

Daniel Dubno: And if you think that's incredible... Craig McCaw and Bill Gates are trying to blanket the world with over 200 satellites with Teldesic's

Teldesic

effort to bring the Internet into space, linking the world. A massive effort to have little satellites in a low earth orbit. You have the Internet all around the world... providing new bandwidthÂ… allowing communication to move all around the world.

Mika Brzezinski: Sounds like their will be a lot of GARBAGE in space as well!

Daniel Dubno: There's a lot of great stuff in space, and yes, there already is a lot of garbage (orbital debris) up in space circling the Earth as well. But we'll talk about that some other time.