[batbomb]

NASA telescopes used to be governed by ITAR. They've relaxed those a lot, but you had to use software to transmit the data encrypted all the way to your science pipelines (e.g. Telescope to White Sands to Goddard to $INSTITUTION)

[garmaine]

That’s because they’re telescopes. NASA’s telescopes are basically spy satellites pointed outwards.

[andyjohnson0]

> NASA’s telescopes are basically spy satellites pointed outwards.

Literally in at least one case. The NRA donated two surveillance satellites to NASA back in 2012 [1] and the plan is to fly one of them as the WFIRST telescope [2]. I don't think there is a launch date yet.

[1] https://www.space.com/16000-spy-satellites-space-telescopes-...

[2] https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/02/18/nasa-moves-forward-wit...

[andyjohnson0]

> The NRA

NRO damnit

[batbomb]

it's also true for the xray/gamma ray/etc... observatories