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.

Rep. Rogers Proposes ‘Space Force’; JICSPOC Morphs To ‘National Space Defense Center’

Rep. Rogers Proposes ‘Space Force’; JICSPOC Morphs To ‘National Space Defense Center’
Rep. Rogers Proposes ‘Space Force’; JICSPOC Morphs To ‘National Space Defense Center’

UPDATED: Adds Rep. Rogers’ Speech Calling For New Space Service; Rep. Lamborn Saying No SPACE SYMPOSIUM: What’s in a name? When Gen. John Hyten, head of Strategic Command, announced the new name for the JICSPOC today, it marked a fundamental transformation of the US national security establishment to a much closer integration of the Intelligence…

US Jammed Own Satellites 261 Times; What If Enemy Did?

US Jammed Own Satellites 261 Times; What If Enemy Did?
US Jammed Own Satellites 261 Times; What If Enemy Did?

WASHINGTON: Russia and China are investing heavily in cyber and electronic warfare, but they’re not shutting down US satellite downlinks yet. Instead, we have met the enemy and he is us — we think. “In 2015 thus far, we have had 261 cases where we have been jammed from getting information from our satellites down…

Not So Seamless: AFSPC’s Hyten Decries Ops Center Stovepipes

Not So Seamless: AFSPC’s Hyten Decries Ops Center Stovepipes
Not So Seamless: AFSPC’s Hyten Decries Ops Center Stovepipes

NATIONAL HARBOR: The Air Force vision is of a seamless global network, swiftly spotting threats and taking them down with smart bombs, computer viruses, or (one day) lasers as the situation demands. The reality? Not so seamless. Air Force Space Command, for example, houses both the military’s space operations center and a new cyber ops…

White House, IC, DoD ‘Discuss’ Wartime Space Command; F-22s Heading To Europe

White House, IC, DoD ‘Discuss’ Wartime Space Command; F-22s Heading To Europe
White House, IC, DoD ‘Discuss’ Wartime Space Command; F-22s Heading To Europe

PENTAGON: F-22s are finally on their way to Europe as an answer to the increasingly grumpy Russian bear, two months after Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James first announced at the Paris Air Show they might head there. If you telescope back a bit, it becomes clear this deployment may well have a wider strategic importance.…

New IC, DoD Space Center May Take Over From JSPOC

New IC, DoD Space Center May Take Over From JSPOC
New IC, DoD Space Center May Take Over From JSPOC

HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: The new Intelligence Community-military space operations center the military is creating may replace the long-established JSPOC, two top commanders said, but a lot has to happen first. The nascent JICSPOC — Joint, Interagency, & Coalition Space Operations Center — will start as an experiment before potentially becoming a backup to JSPOC and then…

Would Spies Command In A Space War? Dunford Says Maybe

Would Spies Command In A Space War? Dunford Says Maybe
Would Spies Command In A Space War? Dunford Says Maybe

PENTAGON: If a spy satellite is attacked, who will command America’s response — the head of Strategic Command or the Director of National Intelligence? If an Air Force satellite is attacked first, who would command America’s response? These questions are being hotly — but very quietly –debated at the highest reaches of the U.S. government. Since an…

Work Unveils First Space Ops Center For Intel Community And Military

Work Unveils First Space Ops Center For Intel Community And Military
Work Unveils First Space Ops Center For Intel Community And Military

GEOINT: For the first time, all the nation’s spy satellites and the military’s satellites will be tracked from a single   location, allowing the two communities to develop tactics, techniques and procedures together, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said here today. “But the thing we need most is a space operations center, and we are intent…

STRATCOM Must Be Warfighters, Not FAA In Space: Lt. Gen. Kowalski

STRATCOM Must Be Warfighters, Not FAA In Space: Lt. Gen. Kowalski
STRATCOM Must Be Warfighters, Not FAA In Space: Lt. Gen. Kowalski

CAPITOL HILL: The US military spends too much time acting as the FAA of space and not enough watching for potential threats, the deputy chief of Strategic Command said today. That has to change as outer space becomes increasingly contested and increasingly intertwined with cyberspace, Lt. Gen. James Kowalski told a Peter Huessy breakfast here.…

Army Boasts Hottest Space Tech, Says Space Command

Army Boasts Hottest Space Tech, Says Space Command
Army Boasts Hottest Space Tech, Says Space Command

WASHINGTON: The US Army has the most disruptive space technology right now. So says the head of Air Force Space Command, Gen. John Hyten. Hyten was asked about the technology in the space domain at breakfast this morning by my colleague Mark Thompson of Time magazine. Now in the good old days, the head of Space…

US, Closest Allies Sign Space Operations Agreement

US, Closest Allies Sign Space Operations Agreement
US, Closest Allies Sign Space Operations Agreement

COLORADO SPRINGS: Australia, Britain, Canada and United States have signed a symbolically important Memorandum of Understanding committing them to “a partnership on combined space operations.” As is often the case with such international agreements — especially on such a highly sensitive area as space operations — figuring out what it means and how things may…

‘Careless Mark’ Means Higher Costs For Space Program; Cut With Care, General Urges Hill

WASHINGTON: Congress sometimes has a strange way of rewarding the armed services when they actually manage to save some of the taxpayers’ money. For example, when an Air Force program manager managed to reduce the expected cost of a program in half Congress cut half the funds allocated for his program. That was the complaint…