NPR

Amateurs Identify U.S. Spy Satellite Behind President Trump's Tweet

The satellite is believed to be among America's most advanced. Some believe it's as large as the Hubble Space Telescope.
The spy satellite, known as USA 224 or NROL-49, was launched in 2011 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Amateur satellite trackers say they believe an image tweeted by President Trump on Friday came from one of America's most advanced spy satellites.

The image almost certainly came from a satellite known as USA 224, according to Marco Langbroek, a satellite-tracker based in the Netherlands. The satellite was launched by the National Reconnaissance Office in 2011. Almost everything about it remains highly classified, but Langbroek says that based on its size and orbit, most observers believe USA

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