Free Republic

Last week, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office launched NROL-37, carrying its latest spy satellite into geosynchronous orbit via Delta IV-Heavy rocket. But it only took amateur space enthusiasts a few days to locate the mysterious new craft in the skies near Malaysia, over the Strait of Malacca. While the contents and capabilities of the NROL-37 mission's payload are classified (the satellite is innocuously labeled US-268), its need to hitch a ride on the world's biggest rocket strongly suggests it is the seventh member of the Mentor/Orion family, an extra-large class of signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellites which help provide eavesdropping capability...

A project to give the U.S. Air Force enhanced space surveillance capability for detecting and tracking space objects has passed its system design review. The Raytheon Co. said the system design review of its "Space Fence" program included the prototyping of critical system elements to demonstrate increased technical and manufacturing readiness levels. "As our nation's defense becomes increasingly more dependent on the space domain, a system like Space Fence will be a critical component in the space surveillance network, tracking tens of thousands of objects daily," said David Gulla, vice president, National & Theater Security Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense...

The U.S. Air Force’s decision to hold a fresh competition to build a second Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) system satellite is an example of a government agency made gun-shy by “a protest-rich environment” in which losing bidders often challenge government contract awards, according to Craig R. Cooning, general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. In a March 16 press briefing, Cooning said Boeing, which teamed with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., to build the first SBSS satellite, was prepared to enter into a firm, fixed-price contract for the second SBSS, which is intended as an...

The U.S. Air Force will contract to have its Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) system satellite placed into storage due to continued technical difficulties with the Minotaur 4 rocket that have delayed the spacecraft’s launch indefinitely, according to government documents. The Minotaur 4 rocket, built by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., and based in part on excess missile motors, was originally planned to debut in October 2009 with the SBSS launch. But the Air Force issued a statement that month saying the rocket had problems and would remain grounded indefinitely, though no further explanation was given. In a solicitation...

Japan has successfully launched another optical (picture taking) spy satellite. This one joins two other optical birds and one radar satellite. This most recent satellite launch cost $109 million. The satellite cost quite a bit more. In early 2007, Japan lost the use of one of its two radar satellites. The "No. 1 radar satellite", which went into orbit in March 2003, was supposed to last for five years. But the bird has been having electrical problems, and had to be written off. Nearly three years ago, Japan launched its fourth spy satellite into orbit, using a Japanese made rocket....

The U.S. Air Force has hired Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems to study the possibility of integrating additional Missile Defense Agency (MDA) sensors into the U.S. Space Surveillance Network that tracks orbiting satellites, a Raytheon official said Oct. 28. The Tewksbury, Mass.-based company was awarded a $3 million contract from Air Force Space Command for a program called the Enterprise Sensing Prototype Architecture for Space Situational Awareness (ESP-SSA), Joe Chapa, Raytheon’s technical director for national theater security programs, said in an interview. The Air Force’s Space Surveillance Network employs a host of optical telescopes and radars around the world. The telescopes...