The following is a statement by US Senator Daniel Akaka, Democrat-Hawaii, regarding the growing availability of commercial satellite imagery of military sites. Noting that the internationalization of commercial satellite photography makes regulation of such imagery difficult, Akaka warns that the availability of such images has the potential to help or harm US national security. Soon the public will have access to high resolution pictures able to show objects as small as three feet in size. The rapid evolution of satellite technology has suddenly made the 'eye in the sky' accessible to everyone, from foreign governments to the average individual.
Secret sites are suddenly no longer secret.
Photos of Area 51, a top-secret military installation located in Nevada, were recently made available by a private company selling commercial satellite images. The wide availability of these pictures to any person or country that can afford to buy them has the potential to both help or hinder our security. Initially satellites were used during the Cold War for defense purposes. These classified images were only available to the government. However, civilians began to benefit from satellite pictures about thirty years ago when the government satellite, Landsat, began to sell photos to the public for agricultural planning purposes.