Last week, Israel put a new spy satellite into space to monitor Iran’s nuclear and military activities.  The TECSAR satellite was launched abort an Indian rocket.  This was India’s second commercial mission on behalf of another country, as India tries to ramp up its commercial space program.

So what’s the satellite capable of?  Well, obviously that’s a secret since it is spy satellite, but it’s said to be quite advanced, and capable of “enhanced footage technology”, which may mean that it can provide imagery through many different atmospheric conditions.

A spokesman for the National Security Council has announced that a secret U.S spy satellite is in a decaying orbit and will likely re-enter Earth’s atmosphere within the next several weeks. This might be the satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in December 2006. It was an experimental imagery satellite that failed or was disabled in some way. Soon after it reached orbit, communication was lost.

This particular satellite might still contain most of the hydrazine fuel that it carries for maneuvers in space. If this is not burned off during re-entry, it could pose a threat to whoever is beneath it as it crashes down. But Spacemodo thinks that is unlikely. In any case, it’s interesting to hear about the final fate of this secret space gadget.