... Keyhole spy satellites. Credit: Xinhua. US spy satellites prevented World War III in the '70s by taking high-res photos that were "better than Google Earth," said an engineer who used the cameras. Then after a few seconds of footage, the villain looks up, sees the satellite, and the feed cuts off. A Long March 2D rocket launched with the LKW-4 reconnaissance satellite Saturday.

The satellite is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar that can take pictures in any condition.

The spy satellite … A spy satellite identifies a villain talking to The Mole in a crowded Indian village. ... or sending one to Mars for double duty as a super-high resolution Martian surface camera and an observer of the asteroid belt and outer planets. A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications..



Aerial imagery in general is better resolution than can reasonably be captured by satellite. So, for a fair comparison we need to look at satellite imagery only.

It is an excellent satellite with hi-fi earth observation (capabilities)," ISRO Chairman K Sivan told PTI. "This is a very, very important mission for India. Everything you wanted to know about the spy satellites that might’ve found MH370.
In this March 16 satellite imagery provided by DigitalGlobe via the … The CIA launched the first Corona spy satellite in 1959. It was stocked with black-and-white film with an image resolution of 7.5m – enough to make out cars and buildings, but not people.