from the hear-no-evil-see-no-evil-xmit-no-evil dept.
Fun While It Lasted, Falcon 9 Telemetry Now Encrypted
A few weeks back we brought word that Reddit users [derekcz] and [Xerbot] had managed to receive the 2232.5 MHz telemetry downlink from a Falcon 9 upper stage and pull out some interesting plain-text strings. With further software fiddling, the vehicle's video streams were decoded, resulting in some absolutely breathtaking shots of the rocket and its payload from low Earth orbit.
Unfortunately, it looks like those heady days are now over, as [derekcz] reports the downlink from the latest Falcon 9 mission was nothing but intelligible noise.
[...] we know that SpaceX is actively pursuing more lucrative national security launch contracts for both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. For these sensitive government payloads, the normal on-screen telemetry data and space views are omitted from the company's official live streams. It seems likely the Pentagon would be very interested in finding out how civilians were able to obtain this information, and a guarantee from SpaceX that the link would be encrypted for all future flights could have helped smooth things over.
Isn't the government trying to require encryption to have back doors?
Also At:
ExtremeTech and RedOrbit, among others.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 10 2021, @11:20PM
Was SpaceX telemetry about to reveal Stuffin' Joe's plan to pack the Supreme Court with liberals?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 10 2021, @11:33PM (1 child)
We don't want jihadi Muslims knowing when SpaceX takes on a one-off contract to deliver "special Pentagon payload" to Mecca.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @01:07AM
They'll know, alright, for about 10 microseconds before they're vaporized.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 10 2021, @11:47PM (1 child)
This is why they should have made the telemetry non-identifiable.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @01:49AM
The ones recording it were using directional antennas pointed at the rocket as it went by overhead. What are they supposed to do, disguise the rocket?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Sunday April 11 2021, @12:06AM (3 children)
Well yeah! But not their own.
With no significant demand for transparency, you shouldn't expect any.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday April 11 2021, @05:15AM (2 children)
The other thing is that if they've rolled their own encryption then chances are they've got it wrong, so it's just a case of finding the flaw. In particular there's an aerospace secure-messaging standard that practically constitutes a paint-by-numbers on how to do crypto wrong, if they've followed that then all it's done is limited the audience to a more skilled subset of people.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday April 11 2021, @04:29PM (1 child)
The other thing is that if they've rolled their own encryption then chances are they've got it wrong
There's a bartender I know who wondered how satellites orbiting the Earth could send a signal to her TV 24 hours a day while the Earth is rotating. I explained synchronous orbit to her, which made her even more confused. "How can they do that?" Looking for the simplest thing to say, I answered "they have a whole lot of really smart people who are really good at math."
When you have billions of dollars at your disposal, you can hire the best. Even simpler, they're a US government agency. The head could call the NSA head and easily have some airtight code sent to them.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday April 12 2021, @02:33PM
I'm not sure what point (if any) you're making there, but if you could actually make a point I'd be able to disagree with you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @01:51AM (2 children)
Smoke signals have never let me down. And they're reliable, too, except when I'm drunk.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @07:13AM
theorigional burner phone yeah!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday April 12 2021, @07:15AM
Apparently there's never fog where you live.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by HammeredGlass on Sunday April 11 2021, @01:04PM
The only intelligible noise is the stuff people listen to while studying.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @01:31PM (1 child)
There's no real ethical or legal reason why they should, of course, it would just be a nice and interesting thing to do. People are interested, same as with trainspotters or police scanners. And it might help avoid or explain future (unspecified problems that might happen).
Obviously not if the payload is classified, but for ordinary launches.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @03:24AM
It was public, but the publicity appears to have forced them to make it un-public.
I wonder what would be a non-disruptive way to go un-public?
Perhaps add another protocol layer for encryption to the old stream.
Or just transmit noise on the old freq and find another freq for the old stream?
Seems like knowing the structure of the old stream is a leg up on finding an entry into the new stream.
How random is the new stream. It might have some things like frame structure from the old scheme.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by turgid on Sunday April 11 2021, @03:08PM (1 child)
Spacecraft telemetry (and telecommands) are standardised by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems [ccsds.org] and higher level protocols, many of which are open standards, are implemented on top of CCSDS packets. In fact, I'm surprised there aren't any FOSS implementations yet.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday April 12 2021, @02:36PM
And it was the SLS standards that I was referring to in my comment earlier on about b0rken crypto... they rolled their own, sigh.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday April 12 2021, @07:18AM
Well, it surely is better than unintelligible noise, right?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.