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The measured wingspan (using the Google Maps distance measure tool) is around 200 feet whereas the measured wingspan of a B-2 on the ground at nearby Whiteman AFB is the nominal 172 feet, so its altitude AGL is roughly 14% of the altitude of the camera plane that took the photo.


A small roll of the place at the time the photo was taken could also explain this difference.


Good math. I don't know why everyone else is assuming this photo is from a spacecraft. Virtually all of the aerial images of America on Google Earth are taken with aircraft, not spacecraft.


The attribution on google maps for the image is for a satellite imaging company.


Interesting, but I'm not sure that is dispositive. That company is credited for images even where they are obviously aerial. Google Maps images are an algorithmic mash-up of many sources, I imagine they credit partial or possible sources conservatively, to keep from omitting any potentially relevant rights.

In many tiles they don't credit anybody, so the absences of Google's own image credit doesn't mean anything. The first party does not need to credit themselves.




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