“WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force has signed a new memorandum of understanding with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, laying out areas for collaboration between the main military and civilian space organizations within the U.S. government. The five-page document outlines areas for collaboration, including human spaceflight, space policy, space transportation, standards and best practices for planetary defense. The agreement replaces a similar 14-year-old memorandum between NASA and U.S. Air Force Space Command, the organization that has since morphed into the Space Force.”
“NASA and the military share a long history dating back to the late 1950s; there is power in our partnership,” said Space Force Chief of Space Operations General John “Jay” Raymond during a Sept. 22 Mitchell Institute event. “A secure, stable, and accessible space domain underpins our nation’s security, prosperity and scientific achievement. Space Force looks forward to future collaboration, as NASA pushes farther into the universe for the benefit of all.”
“The memorandum puts increased focus on cislunar space, the area beyond geostationary orbit that encompasses activities around the moon. According to the document, both the Space Force and NASA need to increase their Space Domain Awareness of cislunar space, but are at the limits of their current capabilities.”
Comment: This new MOU still leaves the mission of planetary defense with NASA. I’m sure that’s a disappointment to some, but who else is NASA going to call for assistance in that mission?
Beyond that, the Space Force is definitely looking beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) and gazing at the Earth’s surface. Space Force and the Space Development Agency (SDA) are developing a four tiered force structure to monitor cislunar space. First, Space Force has LEO satellites looking outward for any threat from beyond LEO. The second tier is a system of geosynchronous orbit satellites capable of maneuvering to the immediate vicinity of a threat known as the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program. These geosynchronous satellites are multipurpose. They also look down on LEO, atmospheric and ground targets. They can also function as a backup to our LEO communications and navigation satellites. Smart move.
The next two layers are under development. The third layer will be two highly elliptical orbiting satellites for detecting objects in deep space. The fourth layer under development is a fleet of three semi-autonomous advanced maneuvering vehicles operating in cislunar space. They will also be used to detect and track hypersonic weapons and also provide redundant communications and navigational coverage to combatant commands. Their primary mission will be to rendezvous with any vehicle approaching from deep space or the Moon to determine its intent. The SDA insists these semi-autonomous vehicles are not to be armed and are not offensive weapons. At least that’s the plan right now.
I imagine the real capabilities of any of these existing or planned satellites are closely held. I also imagine that Space Force personnel will be mostly stationed at launch sites and control rooms far into the future launching and operating robotic vehicles. Sure they could operate from a cislunar space station or the Moon surface, but would only offer easily destroyed targets for any space capable adversary. Space Force planners surely realize this. They know our LEO satellites with be destroyed or knocked out by EW in large numbers in a conflict. Their plan for this is to be capable of launching a butt load of redundant meshed satellites and replace them as fast as they are knocked out.
Lastly, I imagine these cislunar looking satellites would be ideal for detecting any of these UFOs that we only seem to catch operating well within in our atmosphere up to know. If the sons of bitches aren’t air breathing objects, they must be in deep space as well.
TTG
I do not want to comment on UFOs, I do not believe one ioat about this.
The Chinese state that there increasing UFOs on sight, but that they hardly believe these are extraterrestrial whatevers…I am inclined to agree…There are way too much trouble for the governments and they need any kind of distraction for the masses to continue fearmongering, as the menace of Covid-19 vanishes estationally, like it happened past year…with or without vaccines, in fact we are a bit worst this year compared to the same time past year…go to wonder why…
What I wanted to ask, and I am doing this in this thread as I can not see any other fit for the purpose, is, what has happened to Colonel Lang?
I miss him…
Instead of looking for UFOs, I would hope that Space Force would spend more time helping to avoid more satellite collisions and/or debris impact. That is the biggest menace in LEO, and it will only grow more dangerous in the future.
Space Force or perhaps NASA needs to invest in the Laser Broom or some other similar project.
A bright spot I found in reading about EW, MDO and space is that emphasis has shifted from kinetically destructive ASAT to EW based ASAT that either temporarily or permanently render a satellite useless without blowing it into pieces or sending it into unpredictable directions. This is big in Russian and US military development. I don’t know about China, but I guess they are fully cognizant of the problem. They were researching the space-based laser broom idea a few years ago. It would be a good field for international cooperation to eliminate fears of anyone developing such technologies purely as a space weapon.
Two years back the European Space Agency estimated the amount of debris in orbit as 34000 objects greater than 10cm, 900000 from 1cm to 10cm, and 128 million objects from 1mm to 1cm.
Definitely a Laser Broom should be an international effort.
Perhaps that is why the D0E & Livermore Labs proposal for such a broom died ten years ago when they could not generate any more interest either in DC or overseas. Or perhaps cost killed it as they predicted about 1 million $ each for large debris objects and few thousand $ each for small ones.
Well, currently any economic effort is not directed to save population from anything, but just into decimating its numbers.
They fill their mouths saying any time a new military technology appears that it will aslo ebenfit the civil sector, but which civil sector they do not clarify…
And, Colonel Lang, where he is?
Hello, Kessler syndrome 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
And BTW, how is Colonel Lang?
There seems some cause for concern.
The last output from him of which I am aware was on Sunday, 5/30.
For a few hours this morning there was a “Guest Post” attibuted to Walrus, since deleted:
https://turcopolier.com/pat-is-in-hospital/
Off topic the commander of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR) in Iraq, LtGen Calvert, met with General Shimmari today (5 June) to hold talks on withdrawal of US combat troops.
I imagine they worry about somebody stashing their offensive force of satellites in long elliptical and lunar orbits. Ge0-synchro satellites and stable earth-orbiting ones are sitting ducks. I suspect, if we were to develop an anti-asteroid satellite defense, lunar orbit might be the place to stash at least some of that too. Takes a lot less fuel to break out of lunar orbit.
All
What you know is what is releasable at thee unclas level.