AIR FORCE SECRETARY JAMES OUTLINES CONTRIBUTIONS TO SPACE FLIGHT

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

Right:  Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James. DoD photo  

AF Secretary Describes Space Flight Milestones, Challenges
By Amaani Lyle
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2015 – Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James yesterday outlined the Air Force’s contributions to human space flight advancement and discussed projected milestones and investments in space.

James delivered the keynote address at the Center for American Progress at an event marking the 50th anniversary of Air Force Maj. Ed White leaving his Gemini 4 spacecraft to become the first American to walk in space.

“Space-based capabilities and effects are vital today to U.S. warfighting, homeland security and, indeed, to our way of life,” James said. “Space provides us with position, navigation and timing … [and] helps us with communications used in international banking, global commerce and remote sensing to deter against nuclear war.”

And space is not only an enabler for other domains, the secretary said, but also directly affects the calculus of national security. Though for many years people largely perceived the space environment as peaceful, James warned that is no longer necessarily so.

“Today our satellites … are threated by a proliferation of man-made space debris and by those who would deliberately seek to counter some of our advantages or capabilities in space,” the secretary said.

New Threats Require Different Thinking

The United States needs to think differently about strategies to buffer against increasing threats in space, James said, and posturing for defense and situational awareness in the domain are good starts. “We need to … prepare for the day when a conflict on Earth could translate to effects in space,” she added.

She cited success with the Air Force’s launch provider, United Launch Alliance.

“The Air Force [Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle] program has had an unprecedented 100 percent launch success rate for almost 13 years,” James said. “We also have been encouraging newer launch providers … like SpaceX, to help us re-energize the industrial base and to reintroduce competition into the launch service arena.”

Recently, SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket were certified as the national security space launch service provider, which James said enables the Air Force to compete launch services for the first time in almost a decade. Leveraging competition will help the Air Force drive down taxpayer costs and boost space resiliency, she added.

Humans Will Soon Go to Mars

James said President Barack Obama’s national space transportation policy calls on NASA to develop the necessary capabilities to support human exploration of Mars.

During a recent speech at the Kennedy Space Center, Obama proclaimed that by the mid-2030s, he believes the United States can safely send humans to orbit Mars and return to Earth, and that landing on Mars will follow.

“The day we land on Mars -- and I, for one, hope that an airman will be on that mission … who will do so in the spirit of Ed White, this will be huge,” James said.

The Air Force’s support of the evolving space enterprise that will continue the exploration and development of space is equally important, the secretary said.

“The U.S. space infrastructure will grow to include capabilities such as on-orbit servicing, assembly of large orbiting structures and routine use of extraterrestrial resources,” she said, adding that returning to manned missions from U.S. soil will also be among the Air Force’s significant developments.

Innovation With Industry

Innovation and collaboration with industry keep the Air Force at the forefront of space capabilities nationally and globally, James said, and pays dividends for national space programs.

“The Gemini IV launch and Ed’s spacewalk … serve as shining examples of what our government can do when we work in close collaboration with industry,” she said. “So much of what we do depends on that innovation that comes to us from industry.”

With last year’s announcement that NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing to develop the commercial crew capsule, the secretary said she believes it’s “very likely” that airmen will return to space by way of Air Force launch facilities before the decade’s end. “That will mean the days of relying on Russians in this way will be numbered,” she added.

As the Defense Department’s executive agent for space, James said, she looks broadly across the enterprise at its strategy, budgets and threats. This, she told the audience, calls for greater investments in training, doctrine and tactics, just in the air and cyber domains.

Space situational awareness, or “the eyes in the sky,” underpins the domain’s programs, specifically related to launching humans and national security payloads into orbit, the secretary said. In July 2014 for example, the Air Force launched two geosynchronous space situational awareness program vehicles that are currently progressing with on-orbit research, development, testing and evaluation.

“This program is going to provide us with unprecedented awareness of the activities of other satellites and geosynchronous and geostationary orbits,” James said, adding that it will be “one of our key neighborhood watch programs.”

Pending an approved budgetary request, the Air Force is on track for the 2019 introduction of the Space Fence, which the secretary said can track smaller objects in low-Earth orbit, adapting capabilities to the trend of smaller and more capable satellites. “Even very small pieces of debris can do enormous damage to these precious satellites,” she said.

People are Greatest Factor in Space

Airmen, James said, have been seminal contributors to space advancement over the decades, including pioneers such as Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who became the second moonwalker as part of the Apollo 11 mission and set a spacewalk record with five and a half hours outside the spacecraft during the Gemini 12 mission.

More recent examples, she said, include retired Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, who logged more than 704 hours in space before serving as commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and retired Air Force Col. Eileen Collins, who logged 872 hours in space and was the first woman to pilot a shuttle and command a shuttle mission.

James also noted Air Force Col. Terry Virts’ service as commander of the International Space Station, which, over the past 15 years, has been inhabited by astronauts from around the globe to advance space goals for humanity.

Orbiting 250 miles above the Earth, Virts and his team are responsible for “the most comprehensive study of year-long effects of space on the human body,” James said. The study, she added, will yield “absolutely essential information and insight … that will be pivotal in determining how humans will ultimately survive a mission to Mars.”

But in considering how to inspire and motivate future airmen in space, James noted that the Air Force’s contributions don’t begin and end with astronauts. Thousands of engineers, scientists, maintainers and other dedicated professionals also work toward sustaining America’s leadership in space, and launch infrastructure rockets such as the Atlas and Delta have been “workhorses” for space exploration, she said.

Defense Department investments include billions of dollars in the space industrial base and James said she predicted a budget uptick in that area due to the program’s significance.

Encouraging Future Airmen, Astronauts

But capabilities alone will not suffice in keeping an advantage in space, James said.

“Our airmen … must continue and become even more well versed in space, its application and its defense,” the secretary said. “Our airmen have to enhance their knowledge of how information … permeates all military systems and contributes to critical information and vital intelligence.”

Nurturing greater interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers focused on space will ensure future airmen have a sustained zeal and curiosity for the field, James said. The Air Force and the Air Force Association partnered with industry to develop a program, Stellar Explorers, a STEM-themed group encouraging friendly competition in innovation and this year, coincided with the Space Symposium in Colorado, she noted.

“I’m hopeful … that programs like Stellar Explorers will inspire our youth and put them on a path toward careers involving space that is enriching, rewarding and fun. … Let’s face it -- space is fun,” James said.

DEBRISTREK, THE FRONTIER WE FEAR

Orbital debris, or space junk, is any man-made object in orbit around the Earth that no longer serves a useful purpose. This image was made from a model used to track debris in low-Earth orbit. NASA image

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE,

Next DOD Space Policy Addresses Safety, Security, Access
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2012 - The new Defense Department space policy, updated to reflect the fast-growing use and sometimes misuse of the space domain, addresses issues of safety, sustainability and security in space for the 21st century and beyond.

The policy, signed Oct. 18, 2012, by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, follows the release in 2010 of President Barack Obama's National Space Policy, and in 2011 of the National Security Space Strategy, the first such strategy to be cosigned by the defense secretary and the director of national intelligence.

DOD's space policy also reflects the 2012 DOD Strategic Guidance, which acknowledged growth in the number of spacefaring nations and threats.

According to the guidance, the United States will continue to lead global efforts with allies and partners to assure access to and use of the global commons of space by strengthening international norms of responsible behavior and maintaining interoperable military capabilities.

"Space capabilities have long provided strategic national security advantages for the United States," Carter said in a statement.

"This updated space policy," he added, "institutionalizes the changes the department has made in an increasingly constrained budget environment to address the complex set of space-related opportunities and challenges."

For DOD, space systems are critical to ground navigation, smart bomb precision, and to relay unmanned aerial vehicle feeds to troops. Space also is necessary for early warnings of missile launches and for keeping the president connected to U.S. nuclear forces.

In an interview with the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service, Dr. John F. Plumb, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, described the policy's main points.

"One is that the Department of Defense will deter attacks on our space systems and the systems of our allies, and [the policy] lays out some ways we're going to do that," Plumb said.

Methods to deter disruptions or attacks against space-based systems, according to the policy, include supporting the development of international norms of responsible behavior related to the space domain, building coalitions to enhance collective security, enhancing the resilience of the U.S. space enterprise, and being able to respond to an attack on U.S. or allied space systems using all elements of national power.

The policy also "makes a declaration of how the United States will view interference with our space systems," the acting deputy assistant secretary said, adding that such interference would be seen as an infringement of U.S. rights and would be "irresponsible in peacetime and during a crisis could be escalatory."

Plumb noted, "The policy states this very clearly and it's a message we want to make sure people understand."

One of the international norms of responsible behavior will target a growing problem for spacefaring nations -- space debris.

"Today there are 60 countries operating in space [and] there are thousands of pieces of debris, pieces of [derelict] rockets or old satellites ... flying around in space," he said.

According to the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, more than 21,000 pieces of orbital debris larger than 10 centimeters exist in orbit, along with 500,000 smaller pieces and more than 1 million pieces smaller than 1 centimeter.

"We need to have an international system of norms of responsible behavior for operating in space to mitigate debris," Plumb said. "That's something we're working on and it's something the strategy points toward."

Generally, the policy identifies how DOD will promote international cooperation and commercial partnerships, drive changes within DOD space architectures and acquisition processes, and work to shape the space environment.

Saving money on expensive space assets is another goal of the department, Plumb said, and working with allies and commercial partners can help accomplish this.

The Defense Department has begun to work with commercial space companies to reduce department costs and to help energize the industrial base.

"We [also] need to make sure that U.S. companies are able to compete fairly for international contracts," Plumb added, referring to satellites and many systems, subsystems, parts and components that are controlled by the U.S. government for security reasons but that already are being sold commercially by companies around the world.

In April, for example, officials from the Defense and State departments released a report that urged Congress to move communications and some remote-sensing satellites off the tightly controlled U.S. Munitions List and into the commercial enterprise.

The policy also directs DOD to expand international cooperation in space matters, Plumb said, which "allows you to leverage capabilities together so instead of having to build your own system you can use somebody else's system."

He added, "It also buys you a sense of collective security. If you're operating as a coalition in space, you have more partners relying on the same assets. An attack on those space assets by an adversary would no longer necessarily be against you but against a coalition."

As an example, during a trip to Perth, Australia, last week, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced that the United States would place two key space systems in Australia.

One system, an Air Force C-band space-surveillance radar, will track space assets and debris, increase the security of space-based systems and increase coverage of space objects in the Southern Hemisphere.

The other system is an advanced U.S. space surveillance telescope designed and built by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In Australia, the system will help to leverage space surveillance capabilities for both nations, officials said.

DOD also must be ready to mitigate the effects of attacks on its space systems, Plumb said. One way to do that, spelled out in the policy, is to plan for resilience in space systems, he added.

"Resilience means being able to survive an attack," the acting deputy assistant secretary said, and it means strategically distributing space capabilities among different satellites rather than putting many on one satellite.

"If that [one] satellite goes down," he said, "whether it's due to a solar flare or an attack or bad wiring, we don't want to lose all these mission capabilities. These things are very expensive, so resilient architecture would be more distributed."

The second part "of mitigating the ability of an adversary to attack us would be to make sure that we can operate effectively on the battlefield even if our space capabilities are being degraded," Plumb added.

The growing threat to U.S. and allied space systems, he said, is real.

"Other nations and nonstate actors are developing direct ascent anti-satellite weapons, jammers and ground-based lasers, all designed to interfere with or destroy satellites," Plumb said.

"We need to be prepared and enhance our resilience so these types of capabilities don't prevent us from operating in space," he added. "So we need to move forward with the way we operate in space, for future conflicts in particular. This space policy gives us a good pathway forward."