Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Aviation Weekly
By Amy Butler
April 13, 2011

After nearly 15 years of development work, more than eight years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns, the first of the U.S. Defense Department’s new early missile warning satellites is finally poised for launch.

The Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) geosynchronous (GEO) satellites will provide a new generation of IR sensors designed to detect ballistic missile launches—including “dim,” short-range boosts—faster than today’s Defense Support Program (DSP) constellation.

A launch success will be a step to help move forward from more than a decade of dismal performance in space programs by the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin.

A Sbirs failure would be a stunning turn for the worse for military space programs, which have struggled through quality-control problems, management mishaps and multibillion-dollar overruns. In short, the Air Force’s credibility in delivering precious spaceborne capabilities for the nation is on the line.

Less than a month remains for an 11th-hour snag to arise for Sbirs GEO-1, which is poised to lift off from Cape Canaveral. The flight date is set for May 5 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V, but Col. Roger Teague, the U.S. Air Force’s Sbirs program manager, says May 4 is an option depending on when the space shuttle Endeavour returns from its latest mission.

The satellite must also undergo the launch, outgas, shed its protective sensor cover, and point and focus its highly sophisticated infrared payload before military commanders will be at ease.

Read on: www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awst/2011/04/11/AW_04_11_2011_p48-304186.xml&channel=defense

Two SBIRS radomes were constructed at the American base in 1998 – and there they sit – not operational!

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Space.com
By Stephen Clark
Febraury 6, 2011

A trailblazing payload for the National Reconnaissance Office successfully rocketed into orbit on a Minotaur 1 booster Sunday, beginning a secret mission testing new ways to collect intelligence from space.

The mission was codenamed NROL-66 in the agency’s rocket acquisition naming system. The payload is also called RPP, which is short for Rapid Pathfinder Program.

“I commend everyone who made this launch successful,” said Robert Brodowski, director of the NRO’s advanced science and technology directorate. “This mission is just one example of our ability to rapidly build and launch small spacecraft with on-orbit capabilities that increase the value of NRO systems to our nation’s future.”

An NRO spokesperson disclosed before launch the payload will demonstrate better ways for U.S. government satellites to gather intelligence.

“If you have heard our director speak, one of his priorities is to have a healthy science and technology effort,” said Rick Oborn, an NRO spokesperson. “This particular payload carries some of the work we do in techniques and methods to improve intelligence collection. All part of our work to keep improving the value of our data.”

The U.S. spy satellite agency hasn’t revealed what techniques or sensors the craft will test in space. Its cost, contractor and size are also secret.

But the lightweight payload launched on a Minotaur 1 rocket, the smallest booster used by the NRO since the agency’s existence was declassified in 1992. The Minotaur’s nose cone can fit a spacecraft as large as a kitchen refrigerator, and the four-stage rocket can haul nearly 1,000 pounds into low-altitude polar orbits.

The Minotaur launcher blasted off at 4:26 a.m. local time (7:26 a.m. EST; 1226 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch was delayed from Saturday by a transmitter glitch in the Air Force’s network of tracking and communications equipment.

The six-story rocket swiftly climbed into the predawn sky, breaking the sound barrier seconds later and shedding its powerful first stage a minute after liftoff. Its second stage burned for another minute to propel the rocket nearly 400,000 feet high.

Two more Minotaur stages were supposed to accelerate the vehicle to more than 17,000 mph before deploying the satellite.

An NRO press release Sunday said the launch was successful. …

www.space.com/10773-secret-spy-satellite-rocket-launches.html

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Spaceflight Now
By Stephen Clark
February 7, 2011

The Missile Defense Agency says it is merging its $1.7 billion STSS tracking satellite mission with ground- and sea-based interceptor tests, a campaign officials hope will enable the military to launch kill vehicles against missiles before they fly in range of conventional radars.

If proven, the ability to detect and track missiles from space will give commanders another tool to go along with sensors based on land, at sea and in the air. The addition of a space-based detection network, which STSS is designed to demonstrate, could give strategic, regional and theater defense systems more warning of an enemy missile and permit the launch of interceptors against the threat earlier than ever before.

Existing radars and tracking systems, including the mobile sea-based X-band radar platform, can only see missiles and warheads in a limited area, usually in the launch or re-entry phases of flight. STSS is supposed to show officials if satellites can provide a global perspective on missile flights.

“STSS brings unique capabilities to missile defense,” said Doug Young, vice president of missile defense and warning programs at Northrop Grumman Corp., which built the satellites. “It’s the only system capable of tracking ballistic missiles through all phases of flight, starting with boost extending through midcourse and terminal phases.”

Not only can STSS track missiles, it can map a missile’s trajectory and pass the data to sea- or land-based interceptors to destroy the threat. …

Read on: www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1102/07stss/

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Space.com
By Stephen Clark
February 6, 2011

A trailblazing payload for the National Reconnaissance Office successfully rocketed into orbit on a Minotaur 1 booster Sunday, beginning a secret mission testing new ways to collect intelligence from space.

The mission was codenamed NROL-66 in the agency’s rocket acquisition naming system. The payload is also called RPP, which is short for Rapid Pathfinder Program. …

An NRO spokesperson disclosed before launch the payload will demonstrate better ways for U.S. government satellites to gather intelligence. …

The Minotaur launcher blasted off at 4:26 a.m. local time (7:26 a.m. EST; 1226 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch was delayed from Saturday by a transmitter glitch in the Air Force’s network of tracking and communications equipment. …

The Minotaur 1’s next flight is scheduled from Wallops Island, Va., in May with a satellite for the Pentagon’s Operationally Responsive Space program. Called ORS 1, the spacecraft will carry an electro-optical and infrared sensor to supply battlefield intelligence to U.S. Central Command. …

Read in full: www.space.com/10773-secret-spy-satellite-rocket-launches.html

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UPI.com
December 9, 2010

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE …

Demonstration satellites built by U.S. companies Northrop Grumman and Raytheon successfully detected and tracked an ICBM test launch.

The U.S. Air Force said the Space Tracking and Surveillance System Demonstration program satellites tracked the Minuteman III through the boost and post-boost phases for the first time.

The single re-entry test vehicle from the missile traveled about 5,300 miles to a pre-determined point about 200 miles southwest of Guam.

The missile defense satellites transmitted tracking data to the Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., where the information is being analyzed. …

“This test demonstrated the ability of STSS to track cold-body objects post-boost, an important capability needed by the Missile Defense Agency for the Ballistic Missile Defense System.”

Read in full here: www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/12/09/Demo-satellites-detect-track-missile/UPI-36501291905355/

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BBC News
By Paul Rincon
December 3, 2010

A prototype spaceplane built for the US military has returned to Earth after seven months in orbit [on a classified mission].

The unpiloted X-37B touched down at Vandenberg Air Force base in California …

X-37B Space Plane (photo: US Air Force)

The project has been shrouded in secrecy, prompting widespread speculation about the craft’s purpose.

The Air Force has not said whether it carried anything in its cargo bay, but insists the primary purpose of the mission was to test the craft itself. …

Jeremy Eggers, an Air Force spokesman based at Vandenberg said the craft is expected to return to space in Spring 2011. …

The Boeing-built spacecraft returned to Earth on “auto-pilot”; the successful return marks the first autonomous re-entry and landing in the recorded history of the US space programme.

Because the X-37B (also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, OTV-1) started life as a Nasa programme, the Air Force is in a position to talk openly about the craft’s design, but its precise purpose remains classified. …

Read the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11911335

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Defense Industry Daily
January 18, 2010

In January 2001, a commission headed by then US Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld warned about a possible “space Pearl Harbor” in which a potential enemy would launch a surprise attack against US-based military space assets, disabling them. These assets include communications satellites and the GPS system, which is crucial for precision attack missiles and a host of military systems.

“The US is more dependent on space than any other nation. Yet the threat to the US and its allies in and from space does not command the attention it merits,” the commission warned.

One of the systems that grew out of the commission’s report was the Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) project, which is developing a constellation of satellites to provide the US military with space situational awareness using visible sensors. …

The SBSS system is intended to detect and track space objects, such as satellites, anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, and orbital debris, providing information to the US Department of Defense as well as NASA. The SBSS is a stepping stone toward a functional space-based space surveillance constellation. …

The initial SBSS satellite is expected to improve the US government’s ability to detect deep space objects by 80% over the MSX/SBV system.

The MSX/SBV system was a late 1990s missile defense test satellite; by 2002 most of its sensors had failed. However, 1 small package called the SBV sensor was able to search and track satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) using visible light. …

Building on the success of the MSX/SBV visible sensor, the SBSS Block 10 will further develop the technology and replace the SBV sensor. Block 10 will involve the development of 1 satellite as a pathfinder for a full-constellation of space-based sensors. …

Jan 15, 2010: Boeing in Seal Beach, CA received a $30.9 million contract exercising the option for CY2010 maintenance and operations services to provide the requirements for the development and delivery of the logistics infrastructure of the Space Based Space Surveillance Block 10 system. At this time, $7.8 million has been obligated.

www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Preventing-a-Space-Pearl-Harbor-SBSS-Program-to-Monitor-the-Heavens-06106/

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Bruce Gagnon
November 19, 2009

NASA says it would take almost a year using conventional rockets to get to Mars. By that time a human body would likely turn to jello due to exposure to space radiation. But the space agency has come up with a solution – in fact two of them.

First they want to build the nuclear rocket (Project Prometheus) which NASA says would cut in half the amount of time it would take to get to the red planet. With nuclear reactors for engines NASA also says they could carry heavier payloads which would make it possible to “mine the sky” for precious minerals.

The other solution to the space radiation problem seems to rely on testing monkeys by exposing them to doses of radiation so NASA can further study the effects on the human body. …

“The researchers are to pay particular attention to the effects on the monkeys’ central nervous systems and behaviour. The monkeys, previously trained to perform a variety of tasks, will be tested to see how the exposure affects their performance.
“The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) says that the ‘cruel experiments’ may involve ‘restraint and other cruel procedures’.

“In a statement, they say: ‘Monkeys, like other primates, are highly intelligent, have strong family bonds, demonstrate empathy, and, most importantly, suffer.'” …

http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2009/11/nasa-will-radiate-monkeys-for-mars-trip.html

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Reuters
June 17, 2009
By Dmitry Solovyov

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia hopes U.S. President Barack Obama will not pursue his predecessor’s plan to deploy weapons in space but Moscow is ready to respond appropriately to any such moves, a senior Russian general said on Wednesday.

Russia, negotiating with the United States a new treaty to curb nuclear arms to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) expiring in December, has argued against the “weaponization of space.”

President Dmitry Medvedev, due to receive Obama next month on his first visit to Moscow, has said Russia’s conditions for new nuclear arms accords include banning arms in space. …

“As far as I know, today’s U.S. administration has somewhat different plans — they have become more down-to-earth and more realistic,” one of Russia’s deputy defense ministers Vladimir Popovkin, in charge of weapons, told a news conference.

He said Russia could find a cheap way of dealing with any potential U.S. space defense system. …

www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE55G4I820090617

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BY Craig Covault
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
May 26, 2009

A new military satellite so highly classified the U.S. government will not even divulge which military or intelligence agency owns it is undergoing final checkout for liftoff this summer at Cape Canaveral.

The placement into the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s launch schedule of the $500 million class secret mission, on a large booster and close to launch – but with no public disclosure of who will command it – is highly unusual.

The satellite weighs at least two tons and is code named “PAN.” …

The mission is part of a surge in military spacecraft launch operations at Cape Canaveral, which has already launched three military flights in 2009. The Cape is to launch as many as five more during the second half of the year starting with PAN.

The late placement of PAN in the public schedule, minus any other information, could signal that the Defense Dept. and intelligence agencies are beginning to stiffen secrecy around the growing number of U.S. military space flights. …

The PAN designation is likely a meaningless term used simply so the mission can be called something that will not give away its identity during integration with the launcher. …

The Defense Dept. acknowledges openly that the NRO manages imaging, signal intelligence, and ocean surveillance missions and their relay satellites.

The Air Force operates communications satellites and missile warning spacecraft.

In addition the Missile Defense Agency is openly launching new spacecraft to develop advanced warning sensors while the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing technologies that aid all of the agencies. …

www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0905/26milspace/

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