Science

FORTE

Nuclear Treaty Verification / Lightning Research Satellite · Los Alamos National Laboratory / Sandia National Laboratories

FORTE (Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events), a Los Alamos/Sandia National Laboratory satellite launched in 1997 with a mission that sounds almost too dramatic to be true: hunting for the radio signatures of secret nuclear weapons tests, disguised as a lightning research mission. Built from an all-composite structure and funded by the Department of Energy's nonproliferation office, FORTE genuinely spent its operational life doing both jobs simultaneously — cataloging millions of real lightning strikes while quietly testing the exact detection algorithms designed to catch a clandestine nuclear detonation anywhere on Earth.