Space Force effort to replace aging space tracking software lagging: DOT&E

Space Force effort to replace aging space tracking software lagging: DOT&E
Space Force effort to replace aging space tracking software lagging: DOT&E

“[P]roduct development has been slower than anticipated, and the projected date to decommission SPADOC continues to extend further to late FY24, a delay of more than two years from the original timeline,” according to the 2023 Annual Report of the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test & Evaluation.

Space strategies, ops and tech go into hyperdrive: 5 stories from 2022

Space strategies, ops and tech go into hyperdrive: 5 stories from 2022
Space strategies, ops and tech go into hyperdrive: 5 stories from 2022

From solar power in space to the evolving roll of commercial satellites, 2022 saw more activity, and more controversy, in the heavens.

Seeing in the dark: Space Force works, slowly, to improve monitoring of the heavens

Seeing in the dark: Space Force works, slowly, to improve monitoring of the heavens
Seeing in the dark: Space Force works, slowly, to improve monitoring of the heavens

Space Force hopes to finally be able to ditch this year its “old clunker” SPADOC computer system for managing space surveillance data.

Key space monitoring sensors still rely on outdated CAVENet computer system

Key space monitoring sensors still rely on outdated CAVENet computer system
Key space monitoring sensors still rely on outdated CAVENet computer system

At the moment it is unclear when Space Force and Space Command actually will decommission CAVEnet, 2000s-era tech that analysts use for highly accurate and classified tracking of space objects.  

GAO Says Critical Space C2 Effort At Risk

GAO Says Critical Space C2 Effort At Risk
GAO Says Critical Space C2 Effort At Risk

GAO finds that the Space C2 program “is planning to meet previously deferred requirements that proved too complex for prior programs to achieve,” and “also plans to address new and emerging threats to space assets, for which requirements are not yet defined.”

Air Force Teams With NRO For Secret SSA Bird

Air Force Teams With NRO For Secret SSA Bird
Air Force Teams With NRO For Secret SSA Bird

After years of missed deadlines, cost overruns and underperformance the Air Force has split the requirements for the troubled Joint Mission System program’s Increment 3, dividing them between the Coalition Space Operations Center and the National Space Defense Center. In a separate but apparently related action, the Air Force has also partnered with the nation’s spy satellite builder to create a new Space Situational Awareness satellite.

DOTE: JSPOC JMS Needs Better Cyber; Space Fence Links At Risk

DOTE: JSPOC JMS Needs Better Cyber; Space Fence Links At Risk
DOTE: JSPOC JMS Needs Better Cyber; Space Fence Links At Risk

WASHINGTON: The Air Force’s space command and control system, the Joint Mission System, faces “critical deficiencies” and needs beefier cyber defenses, according to the Pentagon’s annual Operational Test and Evaluation report. “That OT&E report on JMS Increment 2 is not really surprising, and it’s not good,” Brian Weeden, a national security space expert with the…