July 28,
2008: Chile has been shopping around for
a spy satellite for the last year. After entertaining two dozen offers, they
settled on a French bird (from EADS-Astrium) that will cost them $72 million,
and be in orbit within two years. The
satellite will be in an orbit that will bring it over Chile about fifteen times
a day, and its day and night cameras will be used to keep an eye on the
nation's borders, and to provide quick views of natural disaster sites.
Two of
Chiles neighbors had recently acquired their own spy satellite, and that may
have had something to do with this shopping trip. Basic spy satellite
technology is getting cheaper and cheaper, which is why Chile got their bird
for a lot less than the half a billion bucks it would have cost a decade or so
ago.