Space Command Readies For War With ‘Space Enterprise Vision’

Space Command Readies For War With ‘Space Enterprise Vision’
Space Command Readies For War With ‘Space Enterprise Vision’

WASHINGTON: Air Force Space Command has created a blueprint for fighting and winning wars in space, known by the innocuous title of the Space Enterprise Vision. The existence of the plan is not classified but many of its working elements are. The SEV is “an all-encompassing look at all the things we need to do to create…

McCain Compromises On RD-180s: Are Rocket Wars Over?

McCain Compromises On RD-180s: Are Rocket Wars Over?
McCain Compromises On RD-180s: Are Rocket Wars Over?

WASHINGTON: The defense bill that passed the Senate today might just end the long and bitter wrangle over Russian rocket engines. Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain has called for an end to Pentagon purchases of the RD-180 rocket engine, charging it enriched “Putin’s cronies.” His committee unanimously passed a draft National Defense Authorization Act…

Cyber Attack On Satellite Could Be Act Of War: HPSCI Ranking

Cyber Attack On Satellite Could Be Act Of War: HPSCI Ranking
Cyber Attack On Satellite Could Be Act Of War: HPSCI Ranking

CAPITOL HILL: In a rare public event, the No. 2 member of the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee (HPSCI), Rep. Adam, said a cyber attack on a US satellite could be considered an act of war. While this may sound like common sense to some, the question of whether using cyber to interfere with or disable…

NRO Tries New Automatic Systems That Analyze Data & Move Satellites

NRO Tries New Automatic Systems That Analyze Data & Move Satellites
NRO Tries New Automatic Systems That Analyze Data & Move Satellites

UPDATED: NRO Confirms SpaceX Launch Buy  GEOINT: The Pentagon’s Third Offset strategy puts much faith in artificial intelligence and machine-to-machine communications. The National Reconnaissance Office is already working on making those a reality, deploying prototypes of its new next-generation ground systems, Director Betty Sapp said here this morning. “We anticipate fielding a ground system able to direct…

White House Threatens Veto Of House NDAA; OCO, RD-180 At Issue

UPDATED with SecDef, HASC, & SASC comments WASHINGTON: Last night, the White House issued a veto threat against the draft defense bill that just went to the House floor, which takes an $18 billion bite out of the Overseas Contingency Operations fund. This afternoon, Defense Secretary Ash Carter blasted both the House draft of the National Defense Authorization Act…

SecDef: JICSPOC Means ‘One Room, One Floor’ For Intel & Military

SecDef: JICSPOC Means ‘One Room, One Floor’ For Intel & Military
SecDef: JICSPOC Means ‘One Room, One Floor’ For Intel & Military

SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE: Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who spent five years pushing the National Reconnaissance Office and the military to work more closely together, saw the effects today during a tour of the JICSPOC, the experimental effort to improve battle management of America’s satellites. Inside the heavily guarded secure facility where most of America’s satellites are flown and…

HASC OKs 18 RD-180s; Adds $100M For New Designs

HASC OKs 18 RD-180s; Adds $100M For New Designs
HASC OKs 18 RD-180s; Adds $100M For New Designs

WASHINGTON: The House Armed Services Committee is certainly no friend to today’s Russia as ruled by Vladimir Putin, but even they now support the Pentagon’s plans to use 18 Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines. The HASC approved by voice vote an amendment by Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado to the National Defense Authorization Act that would…

‘We Need To Hold Our Noses,’ Buy Russian RD-180 Engines: SecDef

‘We Need To Hold Our Noses,’ Buy Russian RD-180 Engines: SecDef
‘We Need To Hold Our Noses,’ Buy Russian RD-180 Engines: SecDef

WASHINGTON: Ash Carter made many reporters’ day this morning when he pithily put the case for the Pentagon to continue buying Russian RD-180 rocket engines until the United States has two tested and reliable launch providers capable of replacing the highly reliable and relatively cheap Atlas V built and operated by the United Launch Alliance. “We…

It’s ‘War’ Twixt Appropriators & Authorizers Over RD-180s: Sen. Durbin

It’s ‘War’ Twixt Appropriators & Authorizers Over RD-180s: Sen. Durbin
It’s ‘War’ Twixt Appropriators & Authorizers Over RD-180s: Sen. Durbin

CAPITOL HILL: The Senate battle over Russian rockets keeps rocking. Senators Dick Durbin and Richard Shelby sent most of this morning’s defense appropriations hearing defending the Pentagon’s plan to keep using the cheap and technologically reliable but politically toxic RD-180 until an American-made replacement is ready, sometime around 2020-2021. Durbin and Shelby denounced the effort…

HASC Strat Forces Will Push Weather Sats to NRO; Fences JSPOC Dough

HASC Strat Forces Will Push Weather Sats to NRO; Fences JSPOC Dough
HASC Strat Forces Will Push Weather Sats to NRO; Fences JSPOC Dough

UPDATED from Hill staff briefing WASHINGTON: In a move that may spark sustained conflict between the worlds of black and white space, the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee wants to transfer the building of weather of satellites to the National Reconnaissance Office after years of bumbling and indecision by the Air Force, NASA and NOAA.…

GPS 2.0: Aerospace Corp. Launches Second Draft Of GPS – EXCLUSIVE

GPS 2.0: Aerospace Corp. Launches Second Draft Of GPS – EXCLUSIVE
GPS 2.0: Aerospace Corp. Launches Second Draft Of GPS – EXCLUSIVE

COLORADO SPRINGS:  The Aerospace Corp. the people who brought you the concept for GPS, are launching GPS 2.0. It all began when two Aerospace Corps scientists J.R. Woodford Woodward and H. Nakamura penned a little-known briefing In 1966, “Navigation Satellite Study,” that paved the way. Tomorrow, the Aerospace Corp. will issue a new study it hopes will pave…

US Challengers Can Spoof, Dazzle, Cyber Attack US Satellites: DepSecDef

US Challengers Can Spoof, Dazzle, Cyber Attack US Satellites: DepSecDef
US Challengers Can Spoof, Dazzle, Cyber Attack US Satellites: DepSecDef

COLORADO SPRINGS: The work being done at the high-profile Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center (JICSPOC) includes live experiments with satellites, in addition to the wargaming that all assumed has been taking place, Deputy Defense Bob Work  says. “There are satellites up there, as you know, that don’t have a lot of useful life left,” Work replied when I asked what he…

Counting On Chaos In The Offset Strategy: SCO

Counting On Chaos In The Offset Strategy: SCO
Counting On Chaos In The Offset Strategy: SCO

CAPITOL HILL: The secretive Strategic Capabilities Office is designed to jumpstart high-tech weapons projects. But today the SCO’s own director warned the Senate against placing too much trust in technology. In wartime, under assault from a savvy enemy, systems start breaking down, William Roper said, and the winner will be the side whose human beings adapt best…

‘This Is Our Sputnik Moment:’ Rep. Bridenstine Offers Sweeping Space Bill

‘This Is Our Sputnik Moment:’ Rep. Bridenstine Offers Sweeping Space Bill
‘This Is Our Sputnik Moment:’ Rep. Bridenstine Offers Sweeping Space Bill

COLORADO SPRINGS: Declaring the words in the headline, a junior congressman from Oklahoma who has stepped into a void of space leadership in the House, Rep. James Bridenstine, boldly told a jaded audience of senior space officials, diplomats, enthusiasts and the aerospace industry today that America “must forever be the preeminent spacefaring nation.” Bridenstine unveiled his American…