Just six weeks after spotting a secret Chinese spaceplane, an amateur astronomer in Austria is back at it again.
In an interview with Space.com, sky watcher Felix Schöfbänker described how he came to capture imagery of Pentagon craft that nobody knows much about.
Using a 14-inch Dobsonian telescope that’s optimized to track satellites, the Austrian astrophotographer cross-referenced the images he captured with specs from various spy satellites launched by the Pentagon.
While most of what he’s spotted recently have been known crafts deployed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), including the Boeing-built Future Image Architecture (FIA)-Radar satellites and some Keyhole (KH)-11 orbiters, one stood out to Schöfbänker as nothing he’s seen before.
“In July, I managed to get a look at a satellite called ‘USA 290,’ which is suspected of possibly being another KH-11,” he told Space.com. “But my image shows a different kind of design, which doesn’t look like a typical KH-11.”
Hellbound and Down 