How satellites helped get Osama

Cosmic Log - How satellites helped get Osama: "The climax of the Osama drama took place on the ground in Pakistan, but the gutsy military operation would have been impossible to pull off without a web of orbiting satellites.

The proof of that emerged today in accounts of the plan to get Osama bin Laden: Once the CIA and the U.S. military focused in on bin Laden's potential hideout in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, views from above could be turned into a detailed map of the premises, most likely with the help of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The map was so detailed that the operation's planners could build a mockup of the compound for rehearsals."