U.S. SPACE FENCE FACILITY TO BEGIN OPERATIONS IN 2017

MARSHALL ISLANDS
After almost four decades under US administration as the easternmost part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Marshall Islands attained independence in 1986 under a Compact of Free Association. Compensation claims continue as a result of US nuclear testing on some of the atolls between 1947 and 1962. The Marshall Islands hosts the US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) Reagan Missile Test Site, a key installation in the US missile defense network.  From:  CIA World Factbook.

FROM: U.S. AIR FORCE SPACE COMMAND
Basing of first U.S. Space Fence facility announced

9/25/2012 - Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. -- The Air Force will base a Space Fence radar site on Kwajalein Island in the Republic of the Marshall Islands with Initial Operations Capability (IOC) planned for fiscal year 2017.

The Fence will provide a critical Space Surveillance Network capability needed to give warfighters the ability to maintain a full and accurate orbital catalog, ensure orbital safety, and perform conjunction assessments.

Air Force Space Command will award a contract to build the radar, which will be capable of detecting, tracking, identifying and characterizing space objects in low and medium earth orbits. Construction is expected to begin September 2013 and is planned to take 48 months to complete construction and testing.

Until the final design is determined, it is unknown exactly how many personnel will be required to construct the radar site. After construction is complete and the radar is operational, approximately 10-15 contractor personnel are projected for the long-term work force at Kwajalein to maintain the Space Fence radar. A Support Agreement will be established between Air Force Space Command and the U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll/Reagan Test Site for site support and facilities maintenance. Contractor operations and maintenance support for the radar site will fall under the responsibility of the 21st Space Wing.

Space Fence is a radar system operating in the S-Band frequency range, to perform uncued detection, tracking, and accurate measurement of orbiting objects in low earth (primary) and medium earth (secondary) orbital regimes.

Space Fence will provide precise positional data on orbiting objects and will be the most accurate radar in the Space Surveillance Network. Space Fence data will be fed to the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Data from the Space Fence radar will be integrated with other SSN data to provide a comprehensive SSA and integrated space picture.

The Space Fence will provide enhanced space surveillance capabilities to detect and track orbiting objects such as commercial and military satellites and space debris. The Fence will have greater sensitivity, allowing it to detect, track and measure an object the size of a softball orbiting more than 1,200 miles in space. Because it is an uncued tracking system, it will provide evidence of satellite break-ups, collisions, or unexpected maneuvers of satellites

　

THE STRATCOM MISSION

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ARMED WITH SCIENCE
A beautiful prominence eruption producing a coronal mass ejection (CME) shot off the east limb (left side) of the sun on April 16, 2012. Such eruptions are often associated with solar flares, and in this case an M1 class (medium-sized) flare occurred at the same time, peaking at 1:45 PM EDT. The CME was not aimed toward Earth. (From NASA Goddard) 

Written on MAY 15, 2012 AT 7:24 AM by JTOZER
Space Weather, satellites and the Sun
When service members go out on patrol, they keep a weather eye out for any dangers or unknown variables that might impact the mission.  When space surveillance specialists go out on the job, they’re keeping an eye on the skies, and in more ways than one.

Space surveillance is a critical part of STRATCOM‘s mission and involves detecting, tracking, cataloging and identifying man-made objects orbiting Earth, i.e. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation debris.

Space surveillance can predict when and where a decaying space object will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and prevent a returning space object.  To radar, these can look like a missile, and even trigger a false alarm from missile-attack warning sensors of the U.S. and other countries.

Therefore, it’s important that we monitor the skies as much as we monitor anything that impacts us as a nation, and in this case, as a planet.

Space surveillance can also chart the present position of space objects and plot their anticipated orbital paths.  This means detecting new man-made objects in space, producing a running catalog of man-made space objects, determining which country owns a re-entering space object, and  informing NASA whether or not objects may interfere with the space shuttle and Russian Mir space station orbits.

The command accomplishes these tasks through its Space Surveillance Network (SSN) ofU.S. Army, Navy and Air Force operated, ground-based radar’s and optical sensors at 25 sites worldwide.

One of the things that affects our satellites – and something we have to be cognizant of – is space weather, and specifically, solar weather.  Dr. Alex Young, Solar Physicist at theNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, explains how the sun is making scientific waves in our daily lives.