After multiple scrubbed launches, the Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle returned to orbit Dec. 28, riding a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The launch of the secretive reusable space plane came two weeks after China launched its own mysterious spacecraft, “Shenlong,” ...
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The Space Rapid Capabilities Office, charged with quickly delivering cutting-edge, often-classified technologies for the Space Force, has made key progress in its push to modernize the aging system used to control U.S. government satellites, its director revealed last week. Additionally, the secretive organization deployed “threat ...
A new report by the Center for Strategic & International Studies writes that unique phenomena occurring at hypersonic speeds could make hypersonic weapons easier to detect and track on hyperspectral or radiofrequency sensors.
For decades, the Space Force and the Air Force before it have had a tried-and-true method: massive, costly satellites are sent into orbit by launches that have been planned for months. Once there, those satellites mostly stay put in their orbits, preserving as much fuel ...
Military missions in the air, on land, and at sea demand robust, timely weather information. On-orbit space-based environmental monitoring (SBEM) systems are a critical source of this data, but years of underfunding, delayed, curtailed, and canceled modernization programs have left the SBEM enterprise in a ...
U.S. Space Command declared full operational capability Dec. 15, four years after the nation’s 11th combatant command was established—and before it has a permanent home base. After an in-depth evaluation, including affirming the command's ability to function under what SPACECOM commander Gen. James Dickinson called ...
Congress finally passed the National Defense Authorization Act and sent its 3,000 pages to the White House for President Biden’s signature. The annual defense policy bill was approved with overwhelming bipartisan support, as the Senate and House voted it through on Dec. 13 and 14, ...
Multiple delays and scrubbed launches have kept the Space Force’s X-37B from returning to orbit this week. But after suggesting several years ago the secretive space plane may be on its way out, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman indicated its future is brighter ...
The Space Force is contemplating major changes for how it develops its enlisted corps and large civilian contingent, top officials said Dec. 12 at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference, after the service made several changes to how it develops officers.
