LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. intelligence agencies were given a new tool in their quest to track down terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden in the form of a $1.3 billion spy satellite launched Friday afternoon from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The KH-11 imaging reconnaissance satellite lifted off aboard a Titan IVB rocket without any reported problems and will soon be in position to look down on areas of interest, including Afghanistan where bin Laden is believed to be holed up and out of sight since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York.
The satellite is a joint venture by the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. The Air Force was not saying much about the capabilities of the KH-11, but Aviation Week magazine said in its Oct. 8 issue that the 15-ton device will likely be used to snoop on Afghanistan in the near future with high-resolution cameras and infrared sensors that can spot a campfire at night.
"In addition to monitoring strongholds, vehicles and artillery, the spacecraft has the remarkable ability from 200 miles in space, to track the movements of small groups of people walking on the ground," Aviation Week said in a release. "This will be used to monitor the travels of individual Taliban groups and to chart refugee movements to help allied forces separate potential hostile groups from non-combatants," according to the magazine.
There are two other KH-11 satellites in space already. Friday's launch had been in the works for several months.
