WASHINGTON: The Pentagon named three Air Force officers to high-level assignments in military space today: the man who oversaw the first successful launch of the troubled Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), a veteran of the space shuttle program, and the outgoing overseer of the nation’s ballistic missile defense efforts. Brig. Gen. Roger Teague pinned on his…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.How to ensure readiness of next-generation defense technology: Solving the issue of massive heat.
High-performance systems generate tremendous amounts of heat that can compromise missions and make high-tech systems less effective in tactical environments. But there is a solution to this modern-age challenge.
HASC votes to restrict Administration’s ability to negotiate international "space code of conduct" — explained here: http://bit.ly/JfscX1 SydneyFreedberg
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.CAPITOL HILL: After a two-year delay, the Pentagon and State department finally released a report on how they would change satellite exports, which have been crippled by legislation and strict State Department controls, and recommended that Congress generally cede control of satellite exports to the White House. As numerous studies have documented over the last…
By Colin ClarkThis is is priceless — if true! See the costs of depending on Russia for access to space: broken bottles and heads! t.co/GlHIAW99 colinclarkaol
By Colin Clark“Safe passage”: That, in two words, is what Air Force Space Command chief Gen. William Shelton says the U.S. military will gain from an international “code of conduct” on space activities that the State Department is now negotiating – in the face of intense skepticism from some key members of Congress. Shelton and other Pentagon…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.There’s a lot going on in the U.S. Air Force, but for the Senators at this morning’s Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the USAF budget, just one mattered: How budget cuts would impact their home states. While such parochialism is as shocking as gambling in Casablanca, it raises a red flag for the full-scale Base Realignment…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: It has all the hallmarks of what could have become a very embarrassing political and technical scandal. A company called LightSquared got provisional permission from the chairman of the FCC to go ahead with a 4G system that the military said — unequivocally — would jam the crucial signals from Global Positioning System satellites.…
By Colin Clark
AI can make logistics data as valuable as intelligence or operational data for mission success
Valuable intelligence insights can be gleaned from logistics or flight-test data when artificial intelligence or machine learning is applied.
The State and Defense departments scrambled to “correct misperceptions” on Capitol Hill, in foreign capitals and throughout the international space community about American intentions regarding an international space code of conduct. That’s the way a source familiar with the government’s discussions put it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Defense Department spokesman George Little…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: Iran’s growing military arsenal is about to get a little bigger in the coming months, the country’s defense chief said this week. A new Iranian-built spy plane and satellite are slated to go operational next month, Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi told the official Iranian news agency IRNA yesterday. The new “maritime patrol…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: In an important policy shift, the United States will not adopt a European Union code governing space activities, space debris and international data, a senior State Department official said today. At the tail end of a breakfast today with reporters, Ellen Tauscher,undersecretary of State for arms control and international security, said that the U.S.…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: Worried that proposed cuts to the multi-billion commercial satellite imagery budget may be too deep, the White House has ordered a study to determine how much can or should be cut. The study is being led by Roger Mason, associate director for systems and resource analyses in the Office of Director of National Intelligence,…
By Colin ClarkOmaha: What if you crafted an international nuclear arms agreement and didn’t get all the major nuclear powers to sign on? That’s sort of the position the United States finds itself in as it pursues an international code of conduct designed to encourage international space cooperation to limit space debris and encourage information sharing about…
By Colin ClarkWashington: They spend most of their time analyzing maps for buried bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq or looking at what turned out to Osama bin Laden’s last residence, but intelligence analysts sometimes help out on the home front as well. As Hurricane Irene sends the East Coast scrambling to find shelter, clear out its drains…
By Colin Clark
Obama Administration’s ‘Three Cs’ Means a Failing Space Policy
The Obama administration will probably announce soon that the United States will join in supporting adoption of the European Code of Conduct for Space Activities, which the White House now calls the “international” code of conduct. This commitment reflects the administration’s continuing determination that security for US interests in space can best be found by…
By Bob Butterworth