Forbes

U.S. Navy submarines have spent years shadowing Russian warships, hoping to snap photographs of missile tests through the periscope. It is the stuff of Cold War legends, taking intelligence, skill, courage and patience. Now by pure chance, a commercial satellite flying 488 miles above the Earth has captured exactly that. The unusual event took place in the Barents Sea, in Russia’s arctic north. You can clearly see the yellow fireball as the missile erupts from its launch silo.

That the satellite captured the missile launch was freak chance. That open-source intelligence defense analyst Frank Bottema found it wasn’t. Bottema and others have been watching Russia’s Northern Fleet closely over recent weeks. They have racked up an impressive list of Russian Navy movements visible on free satellite imagery. Bottema found the missile test, 17 miles from the nearest land, because he knew where to look and what he was looking for. You can see it for yourself on Sentinel Playground at grid coordinates 70.09378, 32.75932 (70° 5’37.61″N, 32°45’33.55″E) on July 23.

While some of the other examples may have a greater intelligence value, such as a spy submarine with a payload on its back (likely a deep diving submersible riding piggy-back), this one is a once in a career find.

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