US leads world in 2023 launches, sats on orbit: study
SpaceX alone was responsible for 98 of the 109 launch attempts made by the US in 2023, and 1,937 of the 2,234 US satellites successfully orbited.
Space Force plans to ‘guarantee’ future launch missions with 3 providers faces near term challenge
While Space Systems Command hasn't publicly expressed concerns, outside observers point out that there is a real possibility that only Elon Musk's SpaceX will be able to undertake National Security Space Launches in the next few years.
Space Force to reveal draft for commercial satellite ‘reserve’ service soon
"The capacity needed during times of crisis or conflict will exceed our steady state peacetime demand," said Col. Rich Kniseley, who leads Space Systems Commands Commercial Space Office.
SpaceX ‘Kicking Major Butt’ To Launch X-37B For First Time, Not ULA’s Atlas V
UPDATED: Adds Insights On Signficance ONRCO Mum So Far ON Switch GEOINT: In news sure to rock the launch industry, the mighty United Launch Alliance today failed to be named as the company launching the X-37B spaceplane. Instead, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will carry it for the first time, marking what is believed to be the […]
Artificial Stupidity: Fumbling The Handoff From AI To Human Control
Science fiction taught us to fear smart machines we can’t control. But reality should teach us to fear smart machines that need us to take control when we’re not ready. From Patriot missiles to Tesla cars to Airbus jets, automated systems have killed human beings, not out of malice, but because the humans operating them […]
Trump Taps Former Rep. Heather Wilson As Likely Air Force Secretary;
WASHINGTON: The nation’s spy satellite agency, the NRO, is likely to get closer scrutiny under the presumptive Air Force Secretary, Heather Wilson, a disciplined former National Security Council staffer and member of Congress. I interviewed Wilson a number of times while she was on the Hill and was always impressed with her command of the […]
SMC: ‘High Confidence’ In SpaceX, But Watching Closely
Although the world is awfully excited about Elon Musk’s announcement this week that he’ll be selling tickets to Mars, there are other pressing issues facing SpaceX, such as the cause of the Sept. 1 explosion that destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and much of its launch pad. The day that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 exploded on the […]
Falcon 9 Explodes At Cape Canaveral; Assured Access In Peril?
UPDATED: ADDS SMC Statement; 45th Space Wing Statement WASHINGTON: Elon Musk’s SpaceX faces a stark accounting after today’s explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket during engine testing at Cape Canaveral. Hopeful of greatly increased business with Air Force Space Command, who has already awarded one contract to Musk’s company for the second GPS III satellite […]
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 […]
3D Printing Key To Hypersonic Weapons: Raytheon
UPDATED with independent analysis from ICFI ARLINGTON: The race is on to build hypersonic weapons, missiles that blow through a target’s defenses at more than five times the speed of sound. Or should that be “the race to grow hypersonic weapons”? It turns out an unrelated cutting-edge technology, 3D printing, may be the key to making hypersonics work. […]
It’s Preliminary: ULA Won’t Be Sanctioned
WASHINGTON: It’s not officially official, but the head of Pentagon acquisition, Frank Kendall, says the Treasury Department has not found any reason for sanctions to be applied against the United Launch Alliance. “The preliminary indications from Treasury (Department) are that they do not apply,” Kendall told reporters after a lunch address to the Washington Space […]
‘The Terminator Conundrum:’ VCJCS Selva On Thinking Weapons
WASHINGTON: The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called today for an international debate about the use of intelligent weapons and of boosted human beings. “Where do we want to cross that line, and who crosses that first?” asked Gen. Paul Selva — considered one of the brainier occupants of an office that […]