U.S. Military Satellites Achieve 'Holy Grail' of Missile Defense

Space.com ^ | March 23, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

WASHINGTON — A pair of low Earth-orbiting demonstration satellites built by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems for the first time on March 16 detected and tracked a ballistic missile launch through all phases of flight, a Northrop Grumman official said March 22.

So-called birth-to-death tracking of a ballistic missile launch had never been done before from space and is the most significant achievement to date for the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) spacecraft, said Doug Young, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of missile defense and warning programs.

“It’s the Holy Grail for missile defense,” Young said during a media briefing here. [Top 10 Space Weapons Concepts]

Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman built three STSS demonstration satellites for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The first satellite, which had a classified mission, was launched in May 2009. After completing its test program, it was transferred Jan. 31 to the control of Air Force Space Command to continue supporting the service’s space situational awareness mission.

The two unclassified STSS satellites were launched in September 2009 on a single United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket. During an extended on-orbit check-out and calibration phase that concluded in November, the satellites tracked multiple missile launches in the early boost and post-boost phases and demonstrated the ability to relay data from one satellite to the other.

[KoRn]

China is probably already building them, and will have them deployed by next year....

[mylife]

Excellent.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

When the first operational battle station comes over the horizon,if it doesn’t have a stars and stripes on it, the world will sink into a dark age which will last at least 1,000 years.

[Regulator]

Considering that STSS started more than 25 years ago, and it’s just now getting launched, let’s just say that anyone could have started later and finished earlier.

[jwalsh07]

Reagans legacy lives on.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

A pair of low Earth-orbiting demonstration satellites built by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems for the first time on March 16 detected and tracked a ballistic missile launch through all phases of flight

Any bets on how quickly this technology gets stolen by the Chinese?

[decimon]

Considering that STSS started more than 25 years ago, and it’s just now getting launched, let’s just say that anyone could have started later and finished earlier.

Maybe. Or maybe it's just that hard to do.

[OCC]

I do not follow this stuff very closely, but I was under the assumption we had this capability 20 years ago. Glad to hear the new tracking system works.

[Ramius]

Roger that.

[decimon]

I do not follow this stuff very closely, but I was under the assumption we had this capability 20 years ago.

I don't know that I'd even thought about it.

[Regulator]

It's really hard to do when the U.S. Congress provides a funding roller coaster ride designed to destroy program continuity and design objectives thus leading to unending program rebaselining, massive redesigns, contractor loss of critical personnel and political sniping attacks such that the whole thing ends up taking about 5 times as long as it should have.

[Dallas59]

Obammy will have to share this tech with the Arab world...it’s only fare and they don’t feel good about themselves right now.../s

[theymakemesick]

Has 0bama cancelled it yet?