Search for Flight MH370 tests limits of satellites

Imagine driving down the street at seventy miles an hour with a pair of binoculars and trying to look at every single mailbox… You can’t slew your binoculars around fast enough.

— Brian Weeden, technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation, explaining the limitations of spy satellites, which cannot go wide and deep at the same time. (The Washington Post: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 search tests limits of satellites).