Air Force space officials are now targeting late September for the launch of the space based space surveillance satellite. This comes after they say they have corrected a software issue associated with the Minotaur IV launch vehicle. This is the rocket stack that will carry SBSS into orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The launch was originally slated for July 8, but was delayed after officials identified a potential anomaly in the Minotaur’s design that raised some concern about the SBSS launch. To be safe rather than sorry, they decided to come up with the fix and check to ensure that the Minotaur IV picked for the mission was not at risk of failure. Inspections are now underway at Vandenberg to validate that the rocket hardware is flight ready. (Los Angeles release)
The nominee to lead the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific affairs office argued allies to need to step up their efforts to counter the growing threat of China, while also advocating for the U.S. to maintain “combat-credible” forces and strong investments in the region at his Senate confirmation hearing Oct. 7.
