# Has A Spacecraft Ever Captured Photos/Video Of Another Spacecraft? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140 "2019-07-15T17:42:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/21 "2019-07-16T12:22:06Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > I definitely have a problem with the idea that those who were not born are composed of material that was inside the frame of that picture. While the vast majority of any person certainly would have been, there are cosmic rays as well as particles of the solar wind that even if mostly deflected are visible at very least in the auroras. It is impossible to know whether the products of those particles interaction with the material on Earth eventually found their way into some people, and it would be ludicrously unlikely that absolutely none of them ever did for the last 50 years. More obviously, anyone on the opposite side of the Earth is not in the photo: if you take a photo of a mountain, you can’t claim someone on the other side is in it. ---
**Author:** ![Nansbread1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Nansbread1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nansbread1)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/22 "2019-07-16T12:34:14Z")
Can we actually see Aldrin and Armstrong in that photo? Please point out to me. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/23 "2019-07-16T13:32:06Z")
They said “inside the frame of the photo”, not “in the photo”. ---
**Author:** ![joema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@joema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joema)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/24 "2019-07-16T15:02:24Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > …A number of anti-satellite weapons, e.g., [ASM-135](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT), use, (e.g., infrared) sensors to detect their targets. Apparently no relay of ~images to ground before the kaboom. This is a downlinked image from a Navy Standard SM-3 anti-ballistic missile moments before impacting a target in space. [![](https://www.mda.mil/global/images/system/aegis/fm47.jpg) ](https://www.mda.mil/global/images/system/aegis/fm47.jpg) In Feb. 2008 the same missile system intercepted a satellite in space, but there is no available on-board imagery: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euTQXH-ObGs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euTQXH-ObGs) In 1981 during the first space shuttle mission STS-1, a KH-11 spy satellite imaged the shuttle in orbit at high resolution to check for damage to the thermal protection system. Unlike other space-to-space photos, this was likely taken from hundreds of miles away with both vehicles in separate orbits, requiring significant motion compensation by the KH-11. No images of that are publicly available, but for the photos to be useful the resolution would have to be very high, probably a few inches. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/25 "2019-07-16T16:16:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It would no longer be true if an equivalent photo was taken. Some of Clyde Tombaugh’s remains were sent off into deep space in 2006. And weren’t there persistent rumours of Soviet cosmonauts drifting off into space in failed missions before Apollo 11? Almost certainly false, of course… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/26 "2019-07-16T16:49:59Z")
There may well be cosmonauts who died on their missions, but whose existence is still not publicly acknowledged. But it’s absolutely impossible that there are any who “drifted off into space”. It might be possible on a Moon mission, but it’s impossible to keep a Moon launch secret, and the one single attempt the Soviet Union made at anything that could conceivably be big enough to be a manned Moon mission failed (rather spectacularly) on the launch pad, not out in space. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/27 "2019-07-16T18:11:42Z")
> [@joema](#): > > This is a downlinked image from a Navy Standard SM-3 anti-ballistic missile moments before impacting a target in space. > > [https://www.mda.mil/global/images/system/aegis/fm47.jpg](https://www.mda.mil/global/images/system/aegis/fm47.jpg). Very cool. Thanks for finding that. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/28 "2019-07-16T21:39:14Z")
The Rosetta probe took some images of the Philae lander on its way down to comet 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/29 "2019-07-16T21:47:34Z")
> [@joema](#): > > In 1981 during the first space shuttle mission STS-1, a KH-11 spy satellite imaged the shuttle in orbit at high resolution to check for damage to the thermal protection system. And some NASA engineers [requested spy satellite imaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster#Flight_risk_management) of the same Shuttle during the STS-107 mission, but it didn’t get done, and the Shuttle (Columbia) was destroyed during reentry. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/30 "2019-07-17T06:35:58Z")
That imaging of a Shuttle by a spy satellite makes me think that this may be routinely done in other cases. That is, spy satellite vs spy satellite. Not sure how much can be learned by looking at the outside of one from a distance, but I’m sure they look anyway. Of course, they also probably look from the ground, but from an orbiting satellite there’s no atmosphere to interfere with the view. And I’m sure there’s some maneuvering/counter-maneuvering to get a better view and avoid giving a good view. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/31 "2019-07-17T14:13:01Z")
You probably wouldn’t learn anything interesting by pointing a spy satellite at another spy satellite, that you couldn’t learn more easily through other means. If a spy satellite has a clear view of a point on the ground, then that point on the ground also has a clear view of the spy satellite. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/32 "2019-07-17T15:17:31Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > One of the Apollo missions (Apollo 12) landed so close to Surveyor 3 … Was that intentional? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/33 "2019-07-17T15:36:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You probably wouldn’t learn anything interesting by pointing a spy satellite at another spy satellite, that you couldn’t learn more easily through other means. If a spy satellite has a clear view of a point on the ground, then that point on the ground also has a clear view of the spy satellite. You could get a lot closer to the other guy’s satellite than the ground. And you wouldn’t be looking through a lot of murky atmosphere. The view is potentially much better than from the ground. > [@HeyHomie](#): > > Was that intentional? Certainly was. Pete Conrad wanted a better souvenir than just some Moon rocks. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/34 "2019-07-17T16:01:08Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Certainly was. Pete Conrad wanted a better souvenir than just some Moon rocks. What I meant was, did NASA intend for Apollo 12 to land within walking distance of Surveyor? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/35 "2019-07-17T16:05:48Z")
“Walking distance” is very, very small compared to the size of the Moon, and there have been very, very few landing sites. The chances of that happening by accident are so low as to be effectively zero. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/36 "2019-07-17T16:09:33Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > What I meant was, did NASA intend for Apollo 12 to land within walking distance of Surveyor? Of course they did. Anything that significant on the Apollo missions was not a matter of chance. I was just joking about the souvenirs. Well they did remove a few parts and bring them back, but the astronauts didn’t get to keep them. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/37 "2019-07-17T16:46:00Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > You could get a lot closer to the other guy’s satellite than the ground. Only if you are very, very lucky and just happen to have a spy satellite whose orbit brings it close to the other guy’s satellite. Or launch a new satellite just to spy on one specific target in orbit. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/38 "2019-07-17T17:28:38Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Of course they did. Anything that significant on the Apollo missions was not a matter of chance. I was just joking about the souvenirs. Well they did remove a few parts and bring them back, but the astronauts didn’t get to keep them. Landing near Surveyor was done for a couple of reasons: One was that they wanted to prove out the ability of the LEM to make precision landings. The other was that they wanted to bring back some parts from Surveyor to understand what a few years on the moon does to the equipment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140.md?page=1)