If It Quacks Like A Satellite

According to “Reuters”:http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSEO16955920090331:

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a commercial satellite image of the Musudan-ri missile test site showed a Taepodong-2 missile with a bulb-shaped payload cover, consistent with a satellite payload, rather than a warhead.

The image was posted on Sunday on the website of the Institute for Science and International Security, or ISIS, a Washington-based group devoted to informing the public on security issues including nuclear weapons.

The bulb shape is similar to the nose cone standard for military and commercial satellite launches, concluded officials, including analysts at the U.S. Air Force’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Dayton, Ohio.

“Feel better now?”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1953/icg-be-mellow

If you missed it, the ISIS brief with the Digital Globe image of the space launcher is “here”:http://www.isisnucleariran.org/assets/pdf/MusudanRi_29March2009.pdf. Geoff’s analysis of the image is “here”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2233/dprk-reading-between-the-blurs.

As so often happens, “NTI”:http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20090401_2247.php was here first…

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