Air Force Academy cadets will track space debris under an $800,000 grant that the institution received, reported the Colorado Springs Business Journal. The grant will allow the academy’s Center for Space Situational Awareness Research to develop a series of small, geographically dispersed telescopes, known as Falcon Telescopes, with which the cadets will follow thousands of smaller objects on orbit in addition to the 22,000 larger pieces that the Air Force already tracks. The academy is partnering with colleges in Colorado and Chile on the project. The grant will cover establishing a telescope in Chile that will offer cadets a view of space from the Earth’s southern hemisphere that is not currently available, according to the journal. (See also Crowded, Congested Space from the Air Force Magazine archives.)
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.