APOGEE STAFF The U.S. Space Force is moving forward with a concept that seems more science fiction than science: shipping equipment and materiel to warfighters around the globe on rockets. The service is seeking funding to research, develop and test an idea once known as Rocket Cargo Vanguard and now called Point-to-Point Delivery or P2PD, Defense News reported in March 2024. “When it absolutely, positively has to be there in 30 minutes,” quipped Air Force Col. Eric Felt, invoking an old Federal Express commercial during a panel discussion on the topic at the January 2024 Space Mobility Conference in Orlando,…
Author: Apogee
APOGEE STAFF Before its tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders in February 2022, Russian forces hacked a commercial satellite to disable communications. That opening salvo against United States-based Viasat Inc. sent a clear message to the U.S. and NATO regarding future conflicts: Space is a warfighting domain. Of course, Russia isn’t alone in recognizing the strategic value of U.S. military and commercial satellites. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) — described as a “pacing threat” by U.S. military leaders — also appreciates “the criticality of the space domain and the U.S. military’s increasing reliance on space,” said retired Space Force Col.…
APOGEE STAFF Once a satellite reaches orbit, it can circle the Earth at speeds of 17,000 kilometers per hour. But getting it up there, through the military acquisition process, can be slow going. “Traditionally, we don’t launch until the paper outweighs the rocket,” one defense contractor quipped. Now, new endeavors — including the purpose-built Space Development Agency (SDA) — are speeding things up. Military allies are poised to work with the U.S. as it embarks on this race, all with an eye on the rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a space power. The United Kingdom Space…
APOGEE STAFF The rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a space power has sparked a culture change for militaries in the United States and allied nations, a double-time march to field new and better capabilities so they can maintain their historic advantage in the domain. Twenty-four major steps to reshape the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force were announced in February 2024, with an urgent warning from the services’ civilian leader Frank Kendall: “We are out of time to reoptimize our forces to meet the strategic challenges in a time of Great Power Competition.” The trend…
Apogee Staff Its inventors were thinking small when they hit on something big 25 years ago. Now-retired Stanford University Professor Bob Twiggs and Jordi Puig-Suari, a former aerospace engineering professor at California Polytechnic State University, had no inkling their idea, the CubeSat, would spur interest among researchers worldwide. The miniature satellites, which rely on a standardized “one unit,” or “1U,” parameter of 10 cubic centimeters, about the size of a Rubik’s Cube, are now commonly used by governments, universities, private industry and numerous other organizations. The satellites can be expanded to 1.5, 2, 3, 6, 12 and even 16Us and…
APOGEE STAFF The sheer volume of objects entering low Earth orbit is raising alarm in many quarters, inspiring scary renderings of space paths impossibly cluttered by sharp, shiny objects and prompting calls for space traffic management modeled on systems for controlling transit through air and sea. The most serious danger today, though, may lie not in the proliferation of new satellites — those that enable civilization as we know it through instant communication, precise location and sharp surveillance — but in the space ambitions of decades past. In many ways, for government and private operators keeping an ever-sharper eye on…
APOGEE STAFF U.S. military leaders are counting on artificial intelligence (AI) to play a key role in managing and tracking the thousands of satellites in space while also helping to tackle complex threats that include GPS jamming, counterspace operations and space junk, to name a few. Government agencies and private industry are poised to launch unprecedented numbers of spacecraft in coming years, with the Space Development Agency (SDA) alone anticipating hundreds of new satellites as part of its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) to support data transport, communications, end-to-end missile warning and tracking, and battlefield awareness and targeting. As of…
APOGEE STAFF A small constellation of CubeSats could make a big difference in hurricane readiness. Known as TROPICS – Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats – the recently created program was designed to help scientists better understand the inner workings of hurricanes and other rapidly intensifying storms. “As communities throughout the world are experiencing the growing impacts of increased extreme weather, it’s never been more important to get timely data to those who need it most to save livelihoods and lives,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in July 2023. “TROPICS will deliver vital…
Air Marshal Paul Godfrey I grew up near Kenley, a former Battle of Britain airfield south of London. I remember being a 6-year-old, watching an aircraft display during the air show season and knowing even at that young age that I wanted to be a pilot. I joined the Combined Cadet Force when I was at Trinity School in Croydon, and it cemented my love for aviation. Although I had my sights set on flying, when I went for officer and air crew selection, I failed navigator for mental arithmetic and was graded “marginal” for a pilot. The best decision…
Russia’s tiny Sputnik satellite was the only artificial object gliding across low Earth orbit in 1957. Now, our way of life is fully intertwined with space-based capabilities. But space, which is the U.S. Space Command’s area of responsibility, is increasingly competitive, contested and congested. A look at the numbers as of April 2024: