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As Congress reviews the Trump administration's proposed Space Force, one lawmaker said funding within the fiscal 2020 defense budget may not be enough to get the new military service off the ground.

Rep. William "Mac" Thornberry, R-Texas, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters Wednesday it will take time to balance the requirements coming from the White House, Congress and Pentagon for standing up a new service for space.

But "we've got to get it started," he said during a roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C.

"I think we will come out of conference [with] a lean Space Force designed to meet the objectives that we all want to achieve."

Thornberry said the White House started with a "relatively simple" implementation plan. Then, the Defense Department sent its own additions, which "not many people support" on Capitol Hill in their current form, he said.
https://www.military.com/daily-news...ng-may-come-short-year-key-lawmaker-says.html

n the House, the proposed organizational structure for the Space Force differs slightly, with lawmakers dropping the "Force" name in favor of a "Space Corps" within the Air Force. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the Defense Department's $72.4 million request for the Space Force; the House still may be looking to rein in that spending.
 
After French President Emmanuel Macron called for a space high command to protect his nation's satellites earlier this month, military officials on Thursday released their plans in more detail.

As reported in the French financial newspaper Les Echos, the French Defense Minister, Florence Parly, outlined a new space weapons program that would allow the country to move from space surveillance to the active protection of its satellites.

"France is not embarking on a space arms race," Parly said, according to the publication. However, the projects outlined Thursday by French officials include swarms of nano-satellites that would patrol a few kilometers around French satellites, a ground-based laser system to blind snooping satellites, and perhaps even machine guns on board some satellites.

Parly said one of the country's biggest challenges would be to develop these capabilities with about one-tenth of the budget that the US spends on civil and defense space activities.
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...l-create-its-own-space-based-weapons-program/
 
An asteroid zipped past Earth on Thursday, close enough to slide in between our planet and the Moon – and nobody knew the bloody thing was coming until about a day earlier, when it was within spitting distance.

If it had actually smashed into our homeworld, it could have had the same city-annihilating effect of a 5MT thermonuclear warhead going off, we're told.

The near-Earth object was finally spotted by astronomers at the SONEAR observatory in Oliveria, Brazil, at about midnight UTC on 24 July. A second crew of scientists working on the US-based ASAS-SN project, which stands for All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, observed it ten hours later.

Kris Stanek, a professor of astronomy at Ohio State University and co-principal investigator of ASAS-SN, told The Register today that telescopes in Texas and Hawaii snapped several images of the cosmic boulder whizzing across the sky.

“The data showed that there was something moving - and it’s moving fast. The telescopes take 90 second exposures and the thing was moving in between all those exposures. So we needed to figure out what it was because it was moving too fast,” he said.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/07/26/asteroid_earth_flyby/
 
The Indian military plans to begin a two day first-ever simulated space warfare exercise on 25 July to draft a joint military space doctrine to secure outer space assets.

"There is a need to explore effective tactical, operational and strategic exploitation on the final frontier of warfare. We cannot keep twiddling our thumbs while China zooms ahead. We cannot match China but must have capabilities to protect our space assets," Indian daily the Times of India quoted an official as saying while providing the rationale behind conducting such a drill.

The drill is being held four months after India joined the select group of nations having the capability to shoot down a satellite with their ballistic missiles. The tri-service command of the Indian military will monitor the trials dubbed "IndSpaceEx" on Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal.

In May, the Indian military initiated the formation of tri-service commands to manage space operations, cybersecurity, and special forces, and all these commands are expected to become operational by the end of 2019.

After an anti-satellite missile test in March this year, India stressed it had achieved a new level of "deterrence" capabilities matching those of the US, Russia and China. The development of new deterrence technology as part of its space programme was made a future goal, in contrast to the previous 30 years of exclusively peaceful development.

"We are working on several technologies like directed-energy weapons (DEWs), lasers, electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and co-orbital weapons," Dr Satheesh Reddy, chairman of the state-funded the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) said in a press briefing after the anti-satellite missile test.

Earlier Lakshman Kumar Behera, an IDSA research fellow told Sputnik that India needed "an exclusive Defence Space Research Agency under the DRDO to focus on scientific and technical aspects including space situational awareness, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, directed energy weapons, electronic warfare, formation flying, and rogue satellites."

This April, the Indian government asked national security adviser Ajit Doval to formulate the country's space doctrine and put into place protocols for exploiting the anti-satellite missile capabilities that the country demonstrated in March.

The policies are required to determine whether the state will stick to a no-first-use stance for this newly acquired capability along the lines of India's nuclear posture.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/I...ver_simulated_space_warfare_exercise_999.html
 
France is eying a constellation of miniature space-based guardians armed with lasers that could strike at other satellites if the country's orbital assets come under attack, along with increased surveillance capabilities in orbit to spot potential threats. There are many questions about the potential plan that remain unanswered, but that the French are considering it at all highlights growing concerns about potential conflicts in space and the reality that no one necessarily knows what that might actually entail.

France's Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly described to reporters on July 25, 2019, the country's new "Mastering Space" plan to boost surveillance capabilities in space to spot potential threats and to develop an active defense posture to respond to any attacks. Parly also announced that the country would expand space-related defense spending by $780 million through 2025, on top of an existing budget of around $4 billion over the next six years. This came just weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the country would create a Space Command within the French Air Force by Sept. 1, 2019. That service will subsequently get renamed the Air and Space Force, as well.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...tellation-of-laser-armed-miniature-satellites
 
The Japanese government intends to create a military space unit of the country's Self-Defence Forces in 2020 in connection with the increased use of space for defense purposes by other countries, including the United States, Russia and China, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported on Monday.

According to the newspaper, it is expected that a new 70-strong unit will be stationed at an airbase in the city of Fuchu west of Tokyo. The plan for its creation was drafted in December 2018.

The Japanese government is currently working on a ground-based space tracking system comprising a highly sensitive radar and an optical telescope, its operation is expected from 2023, the publication said.

The main task of the unit will be to monitor space debris, threats of attacks or interference by other countries' satellites.

Since the Japanese Self-Defence Forces did not have such experience, the unit's employees will be sent for training to the US Armed Forces and to Japanese aerospace agency JAXA.

Initially, Japanese authorities planned to set up a military space unit in 2022, but it was decided to speed up the work.

According to the publication, Washington plans to create its own space forces by 2020, that is, almost simultaneously with Japan, and Tokyo sees great opportunities for space cooperation with the United States.

In April, at the 2+2 format talks between the United States and Japan in Washington, an agreement was reached to equip the Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), which is planned for launch in 2023, with a space tracking sensor from the US Defence Department.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/J...it_to_Catch_Up_With_Rivals___Reports_999.html
 
In its latest assessment on debris in space published in Orbital Debris Quarterly News, NASA claimed there are 101 pieces of debris big enough to be tracked, of which 49 pieces remain in orbit as of 15 July.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States has revealed in a report that debris from India's anti-satellite test on 27 March is still floating in space.

The NASA report, however, said most of the debris created by the 27 March test seemed to have disintegrated. It was possible that smaller pieces from that test are floating around and not being tracked, it stated.

India shot down its 740-kilogram Microsat-R satellite in March to demonstrate its ability to destroy the space infrastructure of an enemy country. India became the fourth country in the world to demonstrate this capability.

India's space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had launched the Microsat-R satellite on 24 January of this year.

India's Ministry of External Affairs had said in a statement after the test that "the test was done in the lower atmosphere to ensure that there is no space debris. Whatever debris that is generated will decay and fall back onto the earth within weeks."

The NASA report claims this is the first credible information regarding the amount of space debris created by India's test appearing in the public domain. It also said that this floating debris poses some danger to the International Space Station.

The report further reveals India had 97 functional, and non-functional but intact satellites in space as of 30 June and 157 pieces of trackable space debris. This is a small part of the total 19,404 large objects in space from satellites launched by all spacefaring nations. Out of this 14,432 consist of the debris and junk of used rockets.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Indias_Anti_Satellite_Test_Debris_Still_in_Space___NASA_999.html
 
US President Donald Trump has launched a new Pentagon command focused on warfare in space.

It comes as US military chiefs see China and Russia making advancements in the military final frontier.

The command will focus on defending American interests in space, such as the hundreds of satellites used for communication and surveillance.

"SpaceCom will ensure that America's dominance in space is never threatened," Mr Trump said.

"This is a landmark day, one that recognizes the centrality of space to America's security and defence," he said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49518612
 
US President Donald Trump wants the US to be ready for new battles - and not on the ground, but in space. On Thursday, Trump announced the official establishment of the US military's Space Command.

"It's a big deal", the US president said at the White House's Rose Garden, adding that it would help "defend America's vital interests in space, the next warfighting domain, and I think that's pretty obvious to everybody. It's all about space".
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/R...an_It_Has_Been_For_Many_Years___Prof_999.html

 
Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond, Commander, U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM), ordered the establishment of two subordinate commands to support the warfighting efforts of the command - Combined Force Space Component Command (CFSCC), and Joint Task Force Space Defense (JTF-SD), immediately following the establishment of USSPACECOM Aug. 29, 2019.

Raymond appointed Maj. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting as CFSCC Commander, and Brig. Gen. Matthew W. Davidson as the Deputy Commander; with a mission to plan, integrate, conduct, and assess global space operations in order to deliver combat relevant space capabilities to Combatant Commanders, Coalition partners, the Joint Force, and the Nation.

Upon establishment, Whiting appointed Chief Master Sgt. John F. Bentivegna as the CFSCC Senior Enlisted Leader. Bentivegna will advise the Commander on matters influencing the health, welfare, morale and effective utilization of more than 17,000 CFSCC personnel.

CFSCC will plan and execute space operations through four distinct and geographically dispersed operations centers, including: the Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) at Vandenberg AFB, Calif.; Missile Warning Center (MWC) at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colo.; Joint Overhead Persistent Infrared Center (JOPC) at Buckley AFB, Colo.; and Joint Navigation Warfare Center (JNWC) at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Additionally, the CFSCC will execute tactical control over globally dispersed Air Force, Army, and Navy space units that command satellites in every orbital regime.

"It is an honor and privilege to take command of CFSCC. We are at the dawning of a new, exciting, and challenging era for space; and CFSCC will lead USSPACECOM's efforts to better integrate space warfighting effects into the operations of terrestrial warfighters," said Whiting.

"Through our tactical units and operations centers, CFSCC will provide space capabilities such as space situational awareness, space electronic warfare, satellite communications, missile warning, nuclear detonation detection, environmental monitoring, military ISR, navigation warfare, command and control, and PNT in support of USSPACECOM and the other Combatant Commands."

As one of its primary roles, CFSCC will plan, task, direct, monitor, and assess the execution of combined and joint space operations for theater effects on behalf of the Commander of USSPACECOM in order to directly support ongoing operations in other Combatant Commands.

CFSCC will also provide support to, and receive support from, partner Coalition operations centers including the Australian Space Operations Center, Canadian Space Operations Center, and United Kingdom Space Operations Center. Additionally, CFSCC will build capacity through Coalition, Commercial, and Civil partnerships to achieve combined force objectives.

Furthermore, CFSCC will execute command and control of assigned multinational forces in support of Operation Olympic Defender (OOD), as directed by USSPACECOM.

"Through the standup of the CFSCC and multinational force agreements in OOD, we will out-pace competitor nations in developing our space capabilities, generate greater space force capacity than our competitors, and integrate highly advanced multinational space capabilities with terrestrial coalition warfighting capabilities," said Davidson.

"Last month the United Kingdom formally announced their decision to join Operation Olympic Defender, our named operation for space; and we are excited the Royal Air Force is now providing an officer to serve as the Deputy Director of the CSpOC. The U.K. is a close ally and trusted partner in space; and we are looking forward to additional allies and partners joining OOD in the near future. We are unequivocally stronger together."

On 18 July the former U.K. Defense Secretary announced the U.K. formally accepted the U.S. invitation to join OOD; and the U.K.'s intentions to send additional U.K. personnel to join other international space operators at the CSpOC at Vandenberg AFB.

Space operators from Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom are currently stationed at Vandenberg AFB, working alongside U.S. space operators in CFSCC's CSpOC. Additionally, national liaisons from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are stationed at Vandenberg AFB in USSPACECOM's Multinational Space Collaboration office.

"Space has become exponentially more congested, contested, and degraded domain during the past several decades. Due to emerging threats, and advances in technology, it's imperative that we partner with allies and like-minded nations to preserve access to space, and leverage coalition space capabilities to ensure warfighters down range have the systems they need to defeat the threats they're facing," said Bentivegna.

"The establishment of the CFSCC is the result of years of working alongside allies and partners in and through space. As a coalition we will continue to defend our nations' interests throughout the space domain."
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/C...ommand_Established_at_Vandenberg_AFB_999.html
 
The United States now faces another "Sputnik moment" of recognizing it cannot take leadership in space for granted, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford said in a speech acknowledging the relaunch of US Space Command on Monday.

"In my view, it's not an overstatement to say that we are at another Sputnik moment and you could argue that the stakes are much higher than they were in the late 1950 and early 1960s", Dunford said in his speech at Petersen Air Force Base in the US state of Colorado.

In 1957, the Soviet Union's successful launch of Sputnik I, the first-ever manmade artificial earth satellite, shocked the American public into recognizing that the Soviet Union had several years lead in space capabilities both scientific and military.

The competitive advantage that the United States enjoyed after the Cold War had eroded, Dunford cautioned.

"That dynamic has been particularly evident in space ... The Russians and the Chinese have seen how we have leveraged [US assets] in space. They have developed jamming, cyberspace, directed energy weapons [and] anti-satellite weapons ...We can no longer take our access to space for granted", he said.

US President Donald Trump is pressing for the Department of Defence to create a new unified and independent Space Force. Space Command or SPACECOM is not that force but integrates existing space fighting units and capabilities under its direction form the existing US armed forces.

"We perform our mission in a very complex and volatile security environment ... Space is a contested domain ... This is about taking it to the next level", Dunford said.

President Ronald Reagan first set up a US Space Command in 1985 during his so-called "Star Wars" or Strategic Defence Initiative, but it was ended and integrated into US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) in 2002.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/US_faces_Sputnik_Moment_of_challenge_for_Space_Command_999.html
 
Uusi kirjainyhdistelmä SDA. Agentuurin tähtäimenä on edistää avaruus pohjaisten laitteiden kehitys ja niin muokkaaminen sotilas systeemeiksi.

Despite consistent bipartisan pushback and international criticism, the US Department of Defense's newest space agency may see drastic budget increases in the coming years as it looks to deploy some 1,200 satellites.

The Pentagon has requested a total of nearly $11 billion in funding for its controversial US Space Development Agency (SDA) over the next five years, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg earlier this month.

The SDA, which is separate from US President Donald Trump's proposed Space Force, was established in March and announced by then-acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan as a response to "continuing actions by our near-peer competitors, China and Russia," that he said may be attempts to "deny, degrade or destroy US space capabilities."

While the agency recently received a $150 million for its set-up, documents filed last month revealed the Pentagon is now requesting a modest budget bump up to approximately $259 million for fiscal year 2021. In the following years, however, SDA officials wish to see their budget balloon to $1.1 billion in 2022, $1.9 billion in 2023 and $3.67 billion in 2024, reported Bloomberg. The increase does appear to taper off at fiscal year 2025, with the Defense Department requesting $3.68 billion.

According to the agency, it intends to use the funds to build and launch its "notional space architecture," a six-layer constellation of hundreds of satellites designed to target Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons.

It's unclear how the Pentagon's budget request will be received, as the SDA has seen drastic changes in leadership and been the subject of criticism domestically and internationally in the past seven months.

Retired Air Force Colonel Fred Kennedy, who also served as a senior policy adviser within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's National Security and International Affairs division, exited his role as head of the SDA in June. Space expert Derek Tournear has filled the position as acting director since then, but the agency has yet to announce a new head and has drawn bipartisan criticism from Congress.

Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Mac Thornberry (R-TX) of the House Armed Services Committee issued a letter to the SDA on July 3 that cited an "apparent change of direction" as their reason behind denying a Pentagon request for $15 million in funding for the space agency.

On an international scale, just days after Shanahan announced the Pentagon's creation of the SDA, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang slammed Washington's endeavors and argued the country wanted to turn "space into a new battlefield."

He went on to say that the US' increased rhetoric about potential space threats from Russia and China was a further attempt at finding pretext to "establish unilateral military supremacy and to carry out research and develop advanced weapons."

Despite these various critiques, SDA spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea told Bloomberg for a Friday article that the agency is committed to its goal of "capitalizing on commercial space developments in small satellites and making slight alterations for military systems."
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/P...funding_for_Space_Development_Agency_999.html
 
Russia will deploy more than 10 new laser-optical and radio-technical space monitoring stations on its territory by 2022, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

"It is planned to deploy over 10 new laser-optical and radio-technical systems in Russia that implement various principles of detecting and identifying space objects," the ministry said.

The Defence Ministry also said that two new Voronezh-type missile early warning radars will become operational in 2022 in the Komi Republic and the Murmansk region in northern Russia.

"Work continues on the construction of new radar stations for the missile early warning network in the Komi Republic and the Murmansk region. These works are planned to be completed in 2022," the ministry said.

These new radars will be the first deployed in Russia's Far North.

Russia has deployed so far a total seven operational Voronezh-type radars as part of the country's missile early warning network.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_to_deploy_over_10_space_monitoring_centres_by_2022_999.html
 
wtf, mikä on tutkija sateliitti?

The idea behind the invention is that through rearrangement of solar panels, a spacecraft can reduce its visibility and avoid inspection by foreign spy satellites.

Russian space agency Roscosmos patented a spacecraft which can change its shape if approached by a foreign spy satellite, according to a descriptive note attached to the patent.

"The invention allows reduction of noticeability of spacecraft via change of reflective surface of solar battery panels," the note says.

The spacecraft can rearrange its solar panels, from flat to hemispherical, reducing its reflective surface and visibility, increasing the chance that the inspector satellite will detect and inspect the protected spacecraft.

When the spy satellite moves on, the solar panels deploy again, the note says.

The invention is supposed to mask the spacecraft from so-called inspector satellites, which use LIDAR and other surveillance instrumentation to remotely probe other spacecraft and conduct diagnosis and data collection. Earlier reports indicated that Russian space surveillance detected intensive relocation of US-made GSSAP military inspector satellites in geostationary orbit.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/R...ng_Spaceship_to_avoid_spy_satellites_999.html
 
USA niinkuin muutkin maat haluavat tietenkin ylläpitää tilannekuvaa myös avaruudessa olevista kappaleista. Tästä suurin etu tulee tietysti turvallisuuden kautta kun saadaan tarkempaa ja ajantasaisempaa tietoa eri kiertoradoilla olevasta tavarasta avaruusromu mukaanluettuna. Suurin osa tuosta tiedonkeruusta ja seurannasta tehdään maanpinnalla.

Jenkkien käyttämästä satelliitista löytyy tietoa eim tästä linkistä https://www.afspc.af.mil/About-Us/F...us-space-situational-awareness-program-gssap/
 

Uusinta hottia avaruusrintamalla. Suurvallat ovat kovasti kiinnostuneet kehittämään satelliitteja, jotka kykenevät liikehtimään kiinnostavan eli epäillyn tai tunnistetun vastapuolen satelliitin kiertoradalle. Näin ne pääsisivät kuvaamaan satelliittia läheltä, kuuntelemaan kapeallakin keilalla satelliittiin suunnattuja radiosignaaleja tai jopa ottamaan kiinni kohdesatelliitista ja esimerkiksi hajottamaan sen järjestelmiä.

Siviilipuolella on kehitteillä/tarjolla samantapaisia uusia kykyjä. Esimerkiksi muuten toimivan mutta polttoaineensa melkein käyttäneen tietoliikennesatelliitin käyttöikää voidaan pidentää apusatelliitilla, joka tarraa kiinni alkuperäiseen satelliittiin esim. moottorin suuttimesta. Näin apusatelliitti pystyy huolehtimaan koko paketin asennon ja kiertoradan säätelystä ja kalliin investoinnin tuottavaa käyttöaikaa voidaan lisätä halvemmalla kuin tilaamalla kokonaan uusi satelliitti.
 
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