This afternoon Donald Trump tweeted a taunt to Iran over yesterday’s failed Safir rocket launch. It included the above image, which reveals that the US has space or perhaps stealth aerial imaging capabilities which far exceed anything we were previously known to have.
This appears to be a cell phone image of a high resolution print. You can see the flash near the center of the photo. In the best commercial imagery the transporter-erector is just an indistinct blob, but if you zoom in on this you can make out the vehicle’s tires, or count the posts on the chain link fence that encircles the launch pad.
The clarity and detail of this image exceed what experts previously thought was possible from space, leading some to speculate that it may have been taken from some kind of stealth surveillance drone flying in Iranian airspace. Either way, a significant secret US defense capability has been revealed for the purpose of taunting another nation.