The makers and operators of America’s spy satellites have lofted at least 13 assets on their way to orbit with the early morning launch today of NROL-39, atop the always impressive Atlas V rocket. http://youtu.be/yEF7Si2UkMs The main payload may be a highly advanced space radar, according to several educated guesses (which is about the… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Air Force General Praises CHIRP, Hosted Payloads COLORADO SPRINGS, NATIONAL SPACE SYMPOSIUM: After almost a decade of discussion, hope and frustration, the time appears to finally be ripe for what the space industry calls hosted payloads, the Remora fish of satellites. The Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, which has long been wary… Keep reading →

We hope professional staff at the House Armed Services Committee, as well as their colleagues on SASC, HAC-D and SAC-D, will read this commentary by the respected space and intelligence expert, Bob Butterworth, before Thursday’s HASC hearing on national security space. I spent much of my five years at Space News covering the enormous problems… Keep reading →

At a time when it can seem as if the Pentagon can’t build a major weapon system on time or on schedule, one unlikely corner of the military is on cost and on budget — the super secret shop that builds and operates the nation’s spy satellites. The head of America’s spy satellites said today… Keep reading →

Washington: Lists can be fun and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments issued a doozie today, listing the dozen big programs killed by the Pentagon and their value at time of death. “Over the past decade at least a dozen major programs were terminated without any operational systems being fielded. The sunk cost of… Keep reading →