Tag: Military
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CNN survey suggests support for Space Force doesn’t match Star Wars appeal
News Brief: A CNN survey suggests most Americans don’t back the Trump administration’s plans to create a new military branch known as the Space Force. The survey, based on a sampling of 1,002 American adults, showed that 55 percent would rather keep the Air Force in charge of protecting U.S. space assets. Phil Larson, a…
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VP Mike Pence details plan to create Space Force (sans starship troopers) by 2020
Vice President Mike Pence outlines the Trump administration’s plans for raising the profile of space defense, leading to the establishment of the Department of the Space Force, during a Pentagon address. (White House / DOD via YouTube) The Trump administration is taking immediate steps to raise the profile of the Defense Department’s space operations, and…
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SpaceX wins $130 million Air Force launch contract, marking a first for Falcon Heavy
An automated camera documents the Falcon Heavy rocket’s first ascent from Kennedy Space Center in February with SpaceX’s hangar in the foreground. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) The U.S. Air Force has awarded a $130 million firm-fixed-price contract to SpaceX for the launch of its classified AFSPC-52 satellite on a Falcon Heavy rocket. It’s the…
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President Trump directs Pentagon to create ‘separate but equal’ Space Force
President Donald Trump speaks at a White House meeting of the National Space Council, with Vice President Mike Pence standing beside him and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao sitting in the background. (White House / NASA via YouTube) President Donald Trump today directed the Department of Defense to create a Space Force as the sixth branch…
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Tethers Unlimited delivers tiny but powerful satellite transmitter for Army
The SWIFT-KTX transmitter helps tiny satellites deliver big data. (Tethers Unlimited Photo) Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited says it’s delivered the first flight unit of a K-band radio transmitter that’s designed for use on CubeSat satellites as small as a loaf of bread. The SWIFT-KTX transmitter builds upon Tethers Unlimited’s software-defined radio platform to transmit data…
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Space Force? Space Corps? Space Guard? Experts study ways to patrol final frontier
Workers in protective suits check out the Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle after its touchdown at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility in May 2017. (U.S. Air Force Photo) Two months after President Donald Trump said the United States may create a new military branch to focus on national security space activities, Politico…
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President Donald Trump revives the policy debate over creating military Space Force
President Donald Trump addresses a military audience at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California. (White House via Facebook) President Donald Trump today talked about creating a U.S. Space Force, breathing new life into a concept that’s been proposed by lawmakers but opposed by Pentagon leaders. The subject of space policy came up during the…
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National Space Council’s meeting takes aim at industry regulations – and at China
With NASA’s Orion deep-space capsule serving as a backdrop, Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a meeting of the National Space Council at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA via YouTube) Space industry deregulation, and the potential perils posed by China’s space program, shared the spotlight at today’s meeting of the National Space Council, presided…
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Amid Zuma satellite controversy, SpaceX gets a vote of confidence from Air Force
News Brief: The classified satellite known as Zuma was said to have disappeared soon after its Jan. 7 launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, but the commander of the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center is giving SpaceX a qualified thumbs-up. “Based on the data available, our team did not identify any information…
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Systima’s pyrovalves make their debut with Atlas 5 launch of NROL-52 spy satellite
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket lofts a payload into space for the NROL-52 mission. (ULA Photo) After more than a week of delays, the National Reconnaissance Office was glad to see its latest spy satellite go into orbit on Sunday — and so was Kirkland, Wash.-based Systima Technologies. When a United Launch Alliance Atlas…