The Space Based Space Surveillance system has passed its critical design review on schedule, according to a Boeing release. The Air Force SBSS program manager, Lt. Col. Steven Nussmiller called the feat a “great team effort” that ensures a “well defined and achievable” road to launch—slated for December 2008.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.