Janitor Discovers Spy Plane

[1990C4S]

Canadian tracks down secret U.S. space plane - The Globe and Mail

I guess I should have said 'Spy Shuttle' . But it appears to be true...

Kevin Fetter was cleaning the floors at the PetroCanada station in Brockville, Ont., when he accidentally located a secret U.S. space plane.

An American robotic shuttle known as the X-37B was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 22 under a shroud of secrecy. But Mr. Fetter and an ad-hoc team of international satellite watchers tracked it down – or up – when the 36-year-old recorded footage of the craft in orbit early last Thursday morning while working the nightshift at his job.

He had pointed his telescope into the night before leaving for work, hoping to capture an out-of-service satellite that flashes brightly at specific times. His telescope is connected to a DVD recorder with a built-in hard drive, and when he watched the footage the next day, he saw a bright object zoom across the view field.

He checked its orbit against known satellites and spacecraft and came up with nothing. And so he posted the co-ordinates and time on a website called Heavens-Above and a mailing list called SeeSat-L, both of which are frequented by a band of amateur satellite trackers, who soon linked his sighting to the X-37B.

“I saw it by pure luck, just because I was aimed at a certain area of sky,” Mr. Fetter said.

U.S. officials have said little about the 5.5-ton space plane, the next generation of space shuttle and a craft that is believed to be part of a program developing a new brand of spy satellites....

[masraum]

Really cool. I've watched several satellites naked-eye, in binoculars, and in my telescope (saw the ISS in the telescope, wow!). There are folks that are heavy into the Sat watching hobby that have seen hundreds of satellites. I've probably only seen 15-30 and most of them were by accident.

[Jim Richards]

I wonder what our janitor does in his spare time.

[cgarr]

I could never find any satellites but I can tell you what are neighbors are doing!

[BGCarrera32]

Not Misty, but still fascinating:

Misty (classified project) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[GG Allin]

A little less time looking for satellites and a little more time trying to move out of mommy's house. Come on guy, you're 36.