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Behind the headline-grabbing kinetic war, Russia’s attack on Ukraine has put a new focus on the importance of cybersecurity and satellite communications.

American satellite communications company Viasat probed an outage that impacted its coverage of Ukraine, and SpaceX deployed internet service and terminals to Ukraine, while simultaneously announcing that the company will shift resources to cybersecurity. The FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a warning about the elevated risk.

The stakes are high if this threat escalates.

As impressive as kinetic attacks on satellites are, the biggest threat to these flying computers is from cyberattack. Such an attack that impairs commercial satellites can have an immediate impact on military capability.

The fear of cyberattack on satellites and ground infrastructure has been on the minds of government users for some time. Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of the U.S. Space Force’s Space Operations Command, recently remarked: “Cyberspace is the soft underbelly of our global space networks.”

This threat stems in part from the increasing use of commercially operated satellite networks. America’s primary military wide-band communications satellite network reflects a model of satellite communications that is ending. When the first Wideband Global Satcom satellite took to flight in 2007, the government and its primary contractors built every ounce of the satellites and their infrastructure.

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The Artemis Accords were launched in October 2020. They are led by the U.S. and currently include 18 country members. The group's goal is to return people to the Moon by 2025 and establish a governing framework for exploring and mining on the Moon, Mars and beyond. The mission aims to build a research station on the south pole of the Moon with a supporting lunar space station called the Gateway.

Similarly, in 2019, Russia and China agreed to collaborate on a mission to send people to the south pole of the Moon by 2026. This joint Sino-Russian mission also aims to eventually build a Moon base and place a space station in lunar orbit.

That these blocs do not collaborate to accomplish similar missions on the Moon indicates that strategic interests and rivalries on the ground have been transposed to space.

Any nation can join the Artemis Accords. But Russia and China - along with a number of their allies on Earth - have not done so because some perceive the accords as an effort to expand the U.S.-dominated international order to outer space.

Similarly, Russia and China plan to open their future lunar research station to all interested parties, but no Artemis country has expressed interest. The European Space Agency has even discontinued several joint projects it had planned with Russia and is instead expanding its partnerships with the U.S. and Japan.

The impact of space blocs on the ground
In addition to seeking power in space, countries are also using space blocs to strengthen their spheres of influence on the ground.

One example is the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, which was formed in 2005. Led by China, it includes Bangladesh, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Turkey.

While its broad goal is the development and launch of satellites, the organization's major aim is to expand and normalize the use of the Chinese BeiDou navigation system - the Chinese version of GPS. Countries that use the system could become dependent on China, as is the case of Iran.

The role of private space companies
There has been tremendous growth of commercial activities in space in the past decade. As a result, some scholars see a future of space cooperation defined by shared commercial interests. In this scenario, commercial entities act as intermediaries between states, uniting them behind specific commercial projects in space.

However, commercial enterprises are unlikely to dictate future international cooperation in space. According to current international space law, any company that operates in space does so as an extension of - and under the jurisdiction of - its home nation's government.

The dominance of states over companies in space affairs has been starkly exemplified through the Ukraine crisis. As a result of state-imposed sanctions, many commercial space companies have stopped collaborating with Russia.

Given the current legal framework, it seems most likely that states - not commercial entities - will continue to dictate the rules in space.

Space blocs for collaboration or conflict
I believe that going forward, state formations - such as space blocs - will serve as the major means through which states further their national interests in space and on the ground. There are many benefits when nations come together and form space blocs. Space is hard, so pooling resources, manpower and know-how makes sense. However, such a system also comes with inherent dangers.

History offers many examples showing that the more rigid alliances become, the more likely conflict is to ensue. The growing rigidity of two alliances - the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance - at the end of 19th century is often cited as the key trigger of World War I.

A key lesson therein is that as long as existing space blocs remain flexible and open to all, cooperation will flourish and the world may yet avoid an open conflict in space. Maintaining the focus on scientific goals and exchanges between and within space blocs - while keeping political rivalries at bay - will help to ensure the future of international cooperation in space.
 
Powerful radar systems have played a major role in the study of planets, moons, asteroids, and other objects in our Solar System for several decades, and now have a "unique role" to play in planetary defense - "providing protection to the nations of the world from devastating asteroid and comet impacts," according to the newly released Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the Green Bank Observatory (GBO) are developing new capabilities for the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) that will make them key instruments for meeting this need.

The survey's report, published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, recounts the dangerous effects of impacts from Near Earth Objects (NEOs). These effects range from the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs, to a Siberian impact in 1908 that had the explosive equivalent of 3 to 20 megatons of TNT, to a 2013 impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia, equal to 440 kilotons that injured more than 1,600 people. These are compared to the roughly 15-kiloton Hiroshima nuclear bomb.

The key to mitigating such dangers is to track the objects and measure their sizes and other characteristics to determine the probability that they will strike Earth and the effect they would have if they do. According to the survey, radar is an essential tool for this task.

"Ground-based radar observations of NEOs provide invaluable information for long-term tracking," the survey said. "Because NEO impact energy scales with density, diameter, and velocity, and radar can constrain all of these, planetary radar observations are an important post-discovery characterization technique," the survey added.

Prior to its collapse in 2020, the Arecibo telescope possessed the most powerful radar capabilities for the world's astronomical community, often working with the GBT and VLBA as receivers. The Next Generation radar system being developed for the GBT and VLBA, and later the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA), will help replace the capabilities lost at Arecibo.

The survey recommended developing "a plan for ground-based planetary radar capabilities comparable to or exceeding those of the Arecibo Observatory necessary for achieving planetary defense objectives."

Since its dedication in 2000, the GBT has been a fundamental instrument for planetary science and planetary defense, observing NEOs and Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, the Moon, and the terrestrial planets as a receiver for radar projects. Now, thanks to new technology under development for the GBT, it is the largest fully steerable antenna in the world capable of transmitting radar signals for research.

The GBT's 100-meter diameter makes it an impressive tool for radar work. The location of the GBT and its maneuverability permits it to observe 85 percent of the celestial sphere, allowing it to quickly track objects across its field of view.

A recent article in the Microwave Journal reported on radar experiments done using the GBT and VLBA that successfully produced high resolution images of the Moon, and detected a Near-Earth Asteroid making a close flyby of Earth, more than 5 times farther away than the Moon - using less power than a microwave oven. In these tests, as a proof of concept, the GBT transmitted a 650-watt radar signal at 13.9 GHz that was received by VLBA antennas, producing radar images of the Moon's surface with unprecedented detail.

The National Science Foundation has awarded funds for the conceptual design of a higher-power radar system on the GBT - one that would be nearly 1,000 times more powerful than the proof of concept. In addition to a more powerful transmitter, NRAO and GBO, working with industry partners, will leverage new, solid-state amplifier and array receiving-system technologies to maximize the effectiveness of the new system. In parallel to this, as additional funding is allocated, the team plans to move to final design and construction activities, beginning in 2023.

The GBT's new radar capabilities will introduce a tool that astronomy has not had before, collecting data at higher resolutions and at wavelengths not previously available. NRAO and GBO also are developing advanced data reduction and analysis tools that have not been available before. The flexibility and increased performance of this new system will fill an important need for planetary defense, and also allow astronomers to observe asteroids, comets, planets and moons. The versatility of this system will contribute to many areas of science.

Responding to the report, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said, "For many years, I have been committed to ensuring the Green Bank Observatory stays open for the next generation of young scientists in West Virginia and around the world. Through my seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have strongly supported Green Bank's work observing and cataloging near-earth objects, including the development of new technology that would make it the world's largest moveable antenna and transmitter.

"The new decadal survey underscores Green Bank's importance in planetary research for many more decades to come, and I am proud of the scientists and the entire staff at Green Bank and look forward to seeing their continued efforts to advance our studies of the cosmos."

U.S. Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) said, "One of the great benefits of the research and capabilities at Green Bank is the ability to meet the challenges scientists identify at the time. Here again Green Bank stands ready to advance scientific discovery to meet a national concern."

"At NRAO and GBO, we have a long history of participation in planetary radar studies, and we look forward to adding new capabilities to the GBT and VLBA to produce a next-generation radar system that will serve as an essential tool for researchers in planetary science and planetary defense," said Patrick Taylor, radar division head for NRAO and GBO.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
 
Maintaining space as a peaceful domain is a long-held objective going back to America’s earliest days on orbit. The administration’s goal to further define rules and norms in this regard is admirable. As Vice President Kamala Harris recently explained, it is important to drive toward an international consensus regarding “what is right, what is wrong, and what is acceptable” in space. Empowering this objective demands a full range of military tools. That includes holding adversary capabilities in space at risk to empower effective deterrence.

While the U.S. would like to prevent conflict from escalating to space, many of our adversaries do not share this goal. Instead, they see developing and fielding capabilities to hold our systems on orbit at risk as an opportunity to gain decisive advantages.

Our space enterprise is the super glue that empowers a broad range of military functions. It is exceedingly difficult to project modern American combat power without a range of crucial, space-based systems. This includes our communication, weather, intelligence, navigation and missile-warning satellites.

It may even be impossible for us to project effective combat power if we lose our space-based capabilities, and our adversaries retain theirs. Our adversaries know this, and it is exactly why they have pressed so hard to hold our satellites at risk by demonstrating and fielding known terrestrial and, likely, space-based anti-satellite weapons.
 
In 1996, Joseph W. Ashy, former U.S. commander-in-chief of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, famously said: "We're going to fight in space. We're going to fight from space and we're going to fight into space."

In less than three decades since then, we've seen the establishment of the U.S. Space Force, anti-satellite weapons testing by major spacefaring nations and the rapid development of weapons that can interfere with, disrupt or destroy space assets.

No wonder there are many concerns about the potential of war in space. But the belief in the inevitability of space becoming the next major battlefield runs the risk of becoming, as space law expert Steven Freeland writes, "a self-fulfilling prophecy if care and restraint is not exercised."

It is therefore refreshing that, on April 18, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris committed the United States to "not conduct destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite missile testing."
 
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Another cloud of Russian space debris has bloomed in orbit.

An Earth-orbiting object cataloged as #32398 broke up on April 15, the U.S. Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron tweeted on Tuesday (May 3). Sixteen pieces of space debris associated with the event are currently being tracked, the squadron added.

Object #32398 was an ullage motor from a space tug that helped deliver three Russian GLONASS satellites to orbit in 2007, according to journalist and author Anatoly Zak, who runs RussianSpaceWeb.com. (GLONASS is Russia's version of the GPS navigation system.)
 
NIC4, a subsidiary of Network Innovations, has been awarded a Service Provider Registry (SPR) prototype, a component of the Satellite Communications (SATCOM) Enterprise Management and Control (EM&C).

This software development effort is for the U.S. Space Force (USSF), Space Systems Command (SSC) through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) as an Other Transactional Authority (OTA) Agreement Award. The SPR prototype represents the company's fourth major award under the EM&C program.

The purpose of the SPR prototype is to provide a structured, authoritative catalog of commercial and military SATCOM services that can be allocated to fulfill Department of Defense (DOD) SATCOM mission requirements.

It is an essential part of the EM&C planning element that will combine knowledge of missions, services, terminals and threats for optimal planning and provisioning of DOD terminals for mission operations. The SPR prototype will also capture descriptions and parameterization of space and ground segment infrastructure.

The implementation will be developed and delivered as a set of scalable microservices within a stackable, secure, cloud-built architecture. It will be hosted on a government provided platform-as-a-service that includes cyber security and automated testing as an integral part of the software development and deployment process. This will enable rapid delivery of incrementally expanded feature sets in an agile framework.

"The Service Provider Registry prototype is our next step towards reaching our first operational capability for EM&C. It is centered around an integrated SATCOM Common Operating Picture with alerts, health and status, and operational readiness of terminal, space and terrestrial ground components, delivering SATCOM when and where it is needed worldwide," said Lieutenant Colonel Gary Thompson, Chief of SATCOM Capability Integration at Space Systems Command.

"NIC4 is honored to continue to support the USSF in delivering highly flexible and resilient SATCOM services to the U.S. Military, to ensure our forces continue to enjoy information dominance on the battlefield in the face of new and increasingly challenging conflict domains," said Chad Gatlin, CEO of NIC4.
 
Canada is working on legislation that would allow legal action against crimes committed on the moon, among other space locations.

A budget bill containing the proposed space law amendment for the moon passed its first reading April 29 in the country's House of Commons. (The Commons is somewhat akin to the U.S. House of Representatives.)

The amendment to Canada's Criminal Code is referenced in Bill C-19's Division 18, under a heading called "Civil Lunar Gateway Agreement Implementation Act." It proposes to include Canadians in space committing an "act or omission" that would be considered an "indictable offence" on Canadian soil.

The moon's surface, the Gateway space station and transportation to or from the Gateway would all fall under the proposed legislation, making Canadians in these locations subject to legal action for alleged crimes
 
The US and European Union on Tuesday said Russia was responsible for a cyberattack in February that crippled a satellite network in Ukraine and neighboring countries, disrupting communications and a wind farm used to generate electricity.

The February 24 attack unleashed wiper malware that destroyed thousands of satellite modems used by customers of communications company Viasat. A month later, security firm SentinelOne said an analysis of the wiper malware used in the attack shared multiple technical similarities to VPNFilter, a piece of malware discovered on more than 500,000 home and small office modems in 2018. Multiple US government agencies attributed VPNFilter to Russian state threat actors.

 
Viimeksi muokattu:
The Space Force released its vision for integrated testing of satellites, sensors, ground systems and other capabilities, laying out a plan to develop the organizations and infrastructure needed to operate in an increasingly contested environment.

The vision document, signed in March by Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David Thompson and released Tuesday, calls for the establishment of an agile testing force as well as a more capable range infrastructure that can support the service as integrates capabilities including artificial intelligence and proliferated satellite constellations.

The Space Force, and previously the Air Force, traditionally tested capabilities with two primary factors in mind: ensuring that a satellite can survive launch and that it can operate in a harsh environment. Evolving threats from adversaries such as China and Russia caused the service to rethink how it designs spacecraft. That shift, the document states, requires a new approach to how the it tests systems.

“To stay ahead, the USSF test enterprise must evolve to address the very real threat environment and the emergence of new technologies and capabilities while maximizing the efficiency of an extremely small service if we are to deliver credible warfighting capabilities on operationally relevant timelines,” the document said.
 
One of the greatest threats to humanity's ongoing expansion into space is the proliferation of debris in low Earth orbit. During a panel discussion at the Ars Frontiers conference earlier this month, a trio of experts described the problem and outlined potential solutions.

The issue of debris is almost as old as spaceflight, explained Caleb Henry, a senior analyst at Quilty Analytics. During the Space Race in the 1960s, the Soviet Union and the United States often launched rockets without regard for the trajectory of the upper stages.

"When you put things in space, they don't just disappear, same as with most trash," Henry said. "Trash that's in space is not biodegradable. The result is that we have tens of thousands of large pieces of debris 10 centimeters or above. And then depending on who you ask, there are millions of pieces that are below 10 centimeters in size, a lot of it being in low Earth orbit."

In recent years, however, nations have become more responsible about the management of their upper stages. So instead of just letting them fly after a launch, fuel is reserved to de-orbit them into Earth's atmosphere or put them into orbits far from the Earth-Moon system. But the issue of debris has moved beyond spent rocket stages.
 
An egghead at the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, writing in a peer-reviewed domestic journal, has advocated for Chinese military capability to take out Starlink satellites on the grounds of national security.

According to the South China Morning Post, lead author Ren Yuanzhen and colleagues advocated in Modern Defence Technology not only for China to develop anti-satellite capabilities, but also to have a surveillance system that could monitor and track all satellites in Starlink's constellation.

"A combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation's operating system," the Chinese boffins reportedly said, estimating that data transmission speeds of stealth fighter jets and US military drones could increase by a factor of 100 through a Musk machine connection.

The authors also expressed concern over the ability of Starlink satellites to quickly change orbits via ion thrusters as an offensive move, or for military payloads to be disguised as Starlink machines and sent into orbit undetected.

This means China will need upgraded surveillance systems to detect the fakes and, according to Ren, the ability to intercept Starlink signals to look for threats.

Unfortunately for the researchers, with 2,400 satellites in orbit, taking out Starlink would be quite difficult to accomplish as the system is extensive enough to continue working even with some satellites missing.

While a "hard kill" method, such as a grapple arm or ballistic missile, may not be the most feasible, a "soft kill" method such as using jamming technology would be more practical.

These days the practice of jamming satellites is considered typical warfare activity, as is the inevitable anti-jam satellite communication systems that comes next.

 
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, today announced that the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has selected Planet Labs Federal, Inc. (Planet Federal), Planet's wholly owned subsidiary, for an award to the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contract.

EOCL is the U.S. government's industry-defining procurement vehicle for unclassified commercial satellite imagery and represents the Federal government's significant investment in and commitment to the commercial remote sensing sector and the capabilities and value it provides.

Planet Federal's EOCL award will enable the NRO and its partners, including those across the US national security community, to access Planet's high and medium resolution, daily satellite imagery for an initial period of up to five years, with options to extend the contract up to a total contract performance term of 10 years. Through the award, users will have access to Planet's market-defining earth observation data, including daily, medium resolution PlanetScope and high resolution SkySat.

Once in orbit and operational, users will also have access to Planet's next generation, rapid revisit Pelican fleet that is expected to deliver up to 30cm resolution data. The contract also makes available Planet's unequaled archive of over 2,000 images of every point on the Earth's landmass, dating back to 2009.

Mielenkiintoinen 30cm pikseli resoluutio, nopeasti päivyttävässä globaalissa satelliittikartassa on aikamoinen työkalu monelle ihmiselle ja organisaatiolle.
 
Chinese military researchers have called for the development of a "hard kill" weapon to destroy Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system if it threatens China's national security.

The researchers drew attention to Starlink's "huge potential for military applications" and the need for China to develop countermeasures to surveil, disable or even destroy the growing satellite megaconstellation. Their paper was published last month in the journal China's Modern Defence Technology. A translated copy of the paper is available here (opens in new tab).

Starlink is a broadband satellite internet network developed by Musk's SpaceX company that aims to beam internet access to customers anywhere in the world (as long as they have a Starlink satellite dish to connect to the satellites). Since the first Starlink satellites were launched in 2019, SpaceX has put more than 2,300 of them into low-Earth orbit, and the company plans to send up to 42,000 satellites into space to form a gigantic megaconstellation.

Mitä jos sama tehtäisiin Kiinan satelliiteille?
 
In the latest push for nuclear power in space, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) awarded a contract in May to Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear to advance its nuclear power and propulsion concepts. The company is making a soccer ball–size radioisotope battery it calls EmberCore. The DIU’s goal is to launch the technology into space for demonstration in 2027.

Ultra Safe Nuclear’s system is intended to be lightweight, scalable, and usable as both a propulsion source and a power source. It will be specifically designed to give small-to-medium-size military spacecraft the ability to maneuver nimbly in the space between Earth orbit and the moon. The DIU effort is part of the U.S. military’s recently announced plans to develop a surveillance network in cislunar space.

Besides speedy space maneuvers, the DIU wants to power sensors and communication systems without having to worry about solar panels pointing in the right direction or batteries having enough charge to work at night, says Adam Schilffarth, director of strategy at Ultra Safe Nuclear. “Right now, if you are trying to take radar imagery in Ukraine through cloudy skies,” he says, “current platforms can only take a very short image because they draw so much power.”
 
On 18 February, President Biden, citing U.S. intelligence, announced to the world “we have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days.” In the months leading up to the invasion in late February, the U.S. intelligence community had been revealing details of Putin’s war plans and disclosing highly classified real-time intelligence in the form of satellite imagery and providing detailed analysis of the movement of Russian forces.

Even an unsophisticated observer might notice something profoundly new about how we are experiencing major events across the globe today. Rather than waiting for bits of unclassified information revealed during official government briefings, the general public has watched the tragic crisis of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfold day by day. Never before have we had access to so much real-time data about an ongoing war initiated by a major power such as Russia. Every day, there are countless images, videos, audio files, data about traffic patterns on Google Maps, and high-resolution satellite imagery being shared over social media.
 
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is the world's first full-scale planetary defense test against potential asteroid impacts on Earth. Researchers of the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS now show that instead of leaving behind a relatively small crater, the impact of the DART spacecraft on its target could leave the asteroid near unrecognizable.

66 million years ago, a giant asteroid impact on the Earth likely caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Currently no known asteroid poses an immediate threat. But if one day a large asteroid were to be discovered on a collision course with Earth, it might have to be deflected from its trajectory to prevent catastrophic consequences.

Last November, the DART space probe of the US space agency NASA was launched as a first full-scale experiment of such a manoeuvre: Its mission is to collide with an asteroid and to deflect it from its orbit, in order to provide valuable information for the development of such a planetary defense system.

In a new study published in The Planetary Science Journal, researchers of the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS have simulated this impact with a new method. Their results indicate that it may deform its target far more severely than previously thought.
 
During the Defense Department's Valiant Shield 22 exercise this month, Raytheon Intelligence and Space, a Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) business, successfully demonstrated the ability to collect data on a simulated sea-based threat and then share targeting solutions with distributed defense systems across the Western Pacific Ocean - a key test of the company's Joint All Domain Command and Control infrastructure.

Raytheon's Multi-Program Testbed, or RMT - a converted Boeing 727 - used a combination of radar and electronic intelligence sensors to characterize the simulated threat. Onboard processors then synthesized the data in seconds to create a comprehensive targeting solution that was passed to tactical platforms.

"In the multi-domain fight, seconds could mean the difference between victory and defeat," said Eric Ditmars, president of Secure Sensor Solutions at RI&S. "This experiment shows we can deliver synthesized, multi-source data to commanders faster than ever, giving them a decisive battlefield advantage."

Raytheon's RMT, along with a KC-135 aircraft, four U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighters and, a command-and-control station on the U.S. mainland shared data rapidly in the simulated, highly contested environment. This scenario demonstrates Raytheon's ability to provide successful machine-to-machine communications capabilities to share information securely across multiple sensors and defense systems.

"Bringing these capabilities to the field gives us the highest degree of confidence in their real-world applicability," said Ditmars. "It allows us to stress test them in operational environments and accelerate their maturity."

Valiant Shield 22 is a U.S.-only, biennial field training that builds real-world proficiency in sustaining U.S. forces through detecting, locating, tracking, and engaging units at sea, in the air, on land, and in cyberspace in response to a range of mission areas.
 
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has put out an IT baseline protection profile for space infrastructure amid concerns that attackers could turn their gaze skywards.

The document, published last week, is the result of a year of work by Airbus Defence and Space, the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and BSI, among others. It is focused on defining minimum requirements for cyber security for satellites and, a cynic might say, is a little late to the party considering how rapidly companies such as SpaceX are slinging spacecraft into orbit.

The guide categorizes the protection requirements of various satellite missions from "Normal" to "Very High" with the goal of covering as many missions as possible. It is also intended to cover information security from manufacture through to operation of satellites.

The "Normal" category correlates to damage that is limited and manageable. "High" is high-consequence damage that "can significantly limit the operation of the satellite system." As for "Very High," the attack could result in shutdown and "reach an existentially threatening, catastrophic extent for the operator or the manufacturer."

The detail is impressive, although the document is more a baseline of what requires attention (via a checklist) rather than a straightforward set of instructions. Phases of the satellite lifecycle includes design, testing, transport, commissioning operation, and finally decommissioning. Then there are the networks and applications used to support the spacecraft itself, right down the level of subnet or server room.

As satellites get smarter, their attack surface area increases. In addition, disrupting constellations and communications is arguably yet another front for conflicts. The European Space Agency (ESA) invited hackers to have a crack at its OPS-SAT spacecraft (in a controlled environment) earlier this year with a view to understanding and dealing with vulnerabilities.

Hyvä ja parempi myöhään kuin ei koskaan, milloinkaan.
 
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