Air Force Gen. John Hyten has always wanted to spend time at the house he and his wife bought years ago in Colorado Springs — but he’s too busy with, among other things, alerts of missile launches around the globe, just in case one is US-bound. You’d think the former head of Space Command, now… Keep reading →

As the Air Force tries to decide — after more than a decade of false starts  — just what weather satellites and sensors it needs to build, a Raytheon executive says his company is conducting an internal assessment of how it could meet any emerging needs. “The Air Force now is going through a process, as… Keep reading →

You probably don’t know it, but in early February 87 countries agreed to voluntary guidelines to enhance the long-term sustainability of the space domain, a significant achievement in space diplomacy.

Given that it took eight years to reach this agreement on a set of non-legally binding measures that largely reaffirm existing practices, it is not surprising that it was not widely covered in the news. But it matters.

Unlike the Taliban, Russia and China can shoot down our drones, jam our transmissions, and hack our computers. So to prepare to fight them, we need a very different communications network — one the US Army is now studying how to build.

WASHINGTON: The Missile Defense Agency needs sensors in orbit to track hypersonic threats, the MDA director said this week. Such satellites would use mature technology and could perform other surveillance missions to help justify their cost, Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves told the McAleese/Credit Suisse conference Tuesday. Last week, as we reported, the chief of Strategic… Keep reading →

COLORADO SPRINGS: The head of Space and Missile Systems Center hinted at what he calls a re-architecting of what many believe to be one of the military’s most stovepiped organizations, calling for faster acquisition and major changes to how the Pentagon decides what weapons it’s going to buy. “Some of you may have heard the US has… Keep reading →

ASSOCIATION OF THE US ARMY: After 30 years of trying, the head of Strategic Command believes the time and technology are finally ripe for satellites to track both ballistic missiles and emerging threats such as hypersonics. “I’ll talk about it with Congress over the next couple of weeks,” Gen. John Hyten told reporters here at… Keep reading →

CLARIFIED: Adds SMC Comment On Launch Providers WASHINGTON: Last night the Air Force released the final Request For Proposals for five launch contracts for NRO and Air Force Space Command. The most intriguing payload is a code-word program, shared by the NRO and Air Force Space Command, known as SILENTBARKER, which has been described as… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Before we go any further, this story is based on direct observations of what was believed to be the so-called Zuma satellite, as well as a lot of spookily sourced information, most of it from a single source who shall not be identified. First, nobody who doesn’t have extremely high clearance really knows if… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON:  If all goes well, Raytheon‘s crucial next-generation ground control system for GPS, OCX, will pass its first major hurdle next month as it scrambles out from under the opprobrium of being labeled the worst acquisition program in the Air Force. OCX is designed to double the accuracy of the Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) signal,… Keep reading →