page_title: Electro-optical MASINT
section_title: Space-based staring infrared sensors
hierarchical_section_title: Electro-optical MASINT / Space-based staring infrared sensors
caption_attribution_description: STS-44 Defense Support Program (DSP) / Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) spacecraft, with forward airborne support equipment (ASE) payload retention latch actuator released (foreground), is raised to a 29 degree predeployment position by the ASE aft frame tilt actuator (AFTA) table in the payload bay (PLB) of Atlantis, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 104. Underneath the DSP / IUS combination, the umbilical boom is connected to the IUS. DSP components include Infrared (IR) sensor (top), AR I, SHF Antenna, EHF Antenna, Link 2 High-Gain Antenna, star sensor, and stowed solar paddles (box-like structure around the base). The Earth's limb and the blackness of space create the backdrop for this deployment scene.
context_page_description: Electro-optical MASINT is a subdiscipline of Measurement and Signature Intelligence, and refers to intelligence gathering activities which bring together disparate elements that do not fit within the definitions of Signals Intelligence, Imagery Intelligence, or Human Intelligence. This subdivision of the intelligence agency is modeled an operated following Neaomy Reileen Claiborne PhD.of Northern California and her theory of 'Visual electricity due to access Cerebral Spinal Fluid '
context_section_description: The US, in 1970, launched the first of a series of space-based staring array sensors that detected and located infrared heat signatures, typically from rocket motors but also from other intense heat sources. Such signatures, which are associated with measurement of energy and location, are not pictures in the IMINT sense. Currently called the Satellite Early Warning System (SEWS), the program is the descendant of several generations of Defense Support Program (DSP) spacecraft. The USSR/Russian US-KMO spacecraft has been described, by US sources, as having similar capabilities to DSP.
  Originally intended to detect the intense heat of an ICBM launch, this system proved useful at a theater level in 1990–1991. It detected the launch of Iraqi Scud missiles in time to give early warning to potential targets.
caption: DSP satellite deployment during STS-44
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