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United States Space The Military

CNN Explores 'How Space Force is Defending America' (cnn.com) 117

Posted by EditorDavid from the satellite-nation dept.
Friday a CNN video offered what it calls "an exclusive look into how Space Force is defending America." CNN's Jim Sciutto reported: Inside Mission Control at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, Space Force Guardians, as they're known, fly the nation's missile warning satellites. Using infrared sensors, these satellites, orbiting 22,000 miles above earth, scour the planet 24/7 for missile launches and nuclear detonations.

Lt. Col. Michael Mariner: "We never stop — always vigilant — and we never fail. Because that's how important this mission is to our nation. We provide decision-quality data to tactical war fighters on the ground, to save their lives."

This satellite dish is in touch with missile-warning satellites deployed in what's known as geosynchronous orbit. If those warning satellites detect a launch anywhere on the surface of the planet, it beams that information back down to this ground station instantaneously, at the speed of light. And then Space Force sends that information, that warning, around the world to U.S. forces deployed aboard or here on the U.S. homeland. In January 2020, these satellites sprang into action, detecting multiple missiles from Iran targetting the Al Asad airbase in Iraq. Before those missiles rained down, within minutes Space Force had delivered a lifesaving warning to units on the ground. Space Force specialist Sally Stevens was on duty. "It is lightning fast."

CNN: "Right. And quick enough to take action to protect themselves."

Stevens: "Absolutely. Especially in the Al Asad night. Not very often do we get reminded of where our end data gets to, and that night was a shocking reality."

Missile-warning satellites are just a fraction of the hundreds of U.S. government and commercial satellites monitored and defended by the Guardians of the Space Force today — defended because U.S. adversaries led by Russia and China have deployed weapons to disable or destroy them. Space Force is now an independent branch of the U.S. military due to this alarming new reality. Space, once relatively peaceful territory, is now considered a potential front in any modern war.

Colonel Matthew Holston: "Space is a war-fighting domain. It's the reason that we set up the United States Space Force as a separate service. So each and every day, we're training our operators to deter conflict, but if deterrence fails, to compete and win in space."

The U.S. has far more satellites than any other nation, some 2,500, compared to 431 for China and 168 for Russia. And a whole range of U.S. military technologies depend on them... The danger for the U.S. is that greater dependence on space equals greater vulnerability to attacks in space.

Lt. Col. Michael Mariner: "When you're at the top, the target's on your back. Everybody's shooting for you."

China is launching kidnapper satellites with grappling arms capable of plucking satellites out of orbit. Russia is deploying kamikaze satellites, capable of ramming and destroying U.S. space assets. And Russia now has a new space weapon that Space Force dubs "the nesting doll."

General John W. Raymond, Space Force Chief of Space Operations: "Back in 2017, Russia launched a satellite, and it opened up and another satellite came out, and then it open up and a projectile came out. That projectile is designed to kill U.S. satellites. So in 2019 they did the same thing, but this time they put it up next to one of our satellites. And then we started talking about it."

CNN: "You warned them away?"

Raymond: "We described what is safe and professional behavior. And it's important. Today there's no rules in space. It's the wild, wild west."

Russia and China also have directed-energy weapons, which can damage or disable U.S. satellites from a distance. The age of lasers in space has already arrived. New satellites are being designed with greater maneuverability, shielding to block directed-energy weapons, and resiliency so that losing one or a few does not disable the entire system. Space Force commanders welcome the private sector's entry into space, since it gives more and cheaper options to get into orbit... Raymond: "I would bet on U.S. industry any day. It's a huge advantage that we have."
A CNN article summarizing the report adds that Ameria's adversaries" have already attempted to use space weapons to temporarily disable US satellites, using lasers and directed-energy weapons to blind or 'dazzle' them."

CNN's report concludes that space war "is not science fiction, but a battle already underway today," adding this quote from Space Force Chief of Space Operations, General John W. Raymond. "We would prefer the domain to remain free of conflict. But like in any other domain — like air, land, sea, and now space — we'll be ready to protect and defend."
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CNN Explores 'How Space Force is Defending America' More

CNN Explores 'How Space Force is Defending America'

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  • Two words: Kessler Syndrome (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 08, 2021 @12:39AM (#61668533)

    Problem is that anyone who is able to get a rocket into space can launch something like a bag of sand, and the entire orbit will be impassible for hundreds of years. Denying space is trivially easy. No explosives needed... just high velocities.

    • None of that is true.

      • Can you elaborate on why you say none of that is true?
        (Not saying you're wrong, just after some details).

        I was under the impression that something like what the OP said was true. Get enough high velocity space junk in orbit and it'll start a chain reaction of crashing into satalites and causing more space junk.

        Not that nearly any country on the planet would find that a competitive advantage. "Haha we destroyed satalites for everyone forever" wont make you many friends amoung other nations or your own people

        • Re:Two words: Kessler Syndrome (Score:5, Informative)

          by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Monday August 09, 2021 @02:11AM (#61671429)

          1) Just tossing stuff into space near Earth doesn't put it into "orbit" for relevant values of orbit. If you undo the strings at the top of the bag and then launch it in a stable orbit, you've just got a satellite-sized collection of sand that will tend to clump together. If you put some fireworks in there to spray it around, almost none of it is in a stable orbit.

          2) LEO is sort-of space; it still has thin atmosphere. Little bits of sand do not even maintain a constant speed, even if you start them off in a good orbit, they won't last long.

          3) The same thing is true of debris from random collisions.

          4) The actual problem with satellite collisions causing more collisions is because those satellites are in about the same orbit, eg, they're at the same altitude and speed. (for a stable orbit, everything at the same altitude is at the same speed) If two satellites hit each other, most of the debris still has about the same speed, but a different trajectory, so it has a good chance of getting in the way of other stuff. When you hit a satellite from a weird angle, now most of the debris is at a different altitude, it is no longer even going to stay in orbit for very long, and it is less likely to hit something in the meantime. Possible, but less likely. And if it does hit something, it is because it was wobbling in an eccentric temporary orbit, so that debris is also then redirected.

          It all sounds good when you're using back-of-the-envelope type calculations, but when you consider how orbits actually work, it becomes a lot less scary.

          As for ""Haha we destroyed satalites for everyone forever" it would only take a few months of firing ground-based lasers to knock a large collection of stuff out of stable orbit. When you hit a piece of sand, or metal, or whatever with a short (a few femtoseconds, I'm talking about the operational US military ones) burst from a high power laser, it ablates the surface, basically explodes the skin, which in orbit causes substantial movement of the object. The ablated particles are so small they get pushed around by the Sun, in addition to getting slowed by the atmosphere, so they drop fast.

  • I thought Space Force was a big joke to CNN... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What happened?

    https://youtu.be/S1e7PW19TEQ [youtu.be]

    If it was a joke then, why is it not a joke now?

    • Because US politicians are playing good cop, bad cop.

    • Re:I thought Space Force was a big joke to CNN... (Score:4, Informative)

      by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Sunday August 08, 2021 @01:57AM (#61668647)
      Because a whole bunch of stuff that was Air Force business was shovelled across to the Rocket Rangers to make it look like they had some relevancy. If you look at the situation before the Rocket Rangers were created and after, exluding the make-work stuff that was wished into existence purely to keep the Rocket Rangers busy, nothing has changed except the logos.
      • tRump at work creating White Collar Welfare

      • Because a whole bunch of stuff that was Air Force business was shovelled across to the Rocket Rangers to make it look like they had some relevancy. If you look at the situation before the Rocket Rangers were created and after, exluding the make-work stuff that was wished into existence purely to keep the Rocket Rangers busy, nothing has changed except the logos.

        The same thing, the exact same thing was said about the Air Force when they were created from the Army Air Command. Now they are the best Air Force in existence and the standard for all others. And count on the same standards again.

        • The difference was that the Air Force was created forty years after it was first used in WWI, when it had been obvious for decades that there needed to be a separate arm for it - almost every tin-pot little country already had one, I mean Zimbabwe's air force is older than the USAF.

          For the Rocket Rangers OTOH there's no obvious need for them, unless it's to defend against blurry black-and-white dots on Navy radar screens, for which I think electronics technicians would be more useful.

          • Military officers have made up almost all the astronauts here in the US. I do not believe that is coincidence. The Space Force is meant to defend first just like the rest of the military while nations have publicly announced their intentions to weaponize platforms in space. You can say "just let the air force do it..." or any other branch, that would be easy. But what we do not do in this country is define an agency or the like, define it's boundaries (so help me god...) then just simply add to it's definit

      • Re:I thought Space Force was a big joke to CNN... (Score:5, Informative)

        by CrimsonAvenger ( 580665 ) on Sunday August 08, 2021 @11:28AM (#61669389)

        Because a whole bunch of stuff that was Air Force business was shovelled across to the Rocket Rangers to make it look like they had some relevancy.

        Oddly enough, the exact same thing happened the last time we created a new Military branch out of part of an older branch.

        That time it was the creation of the Air Force out of the Army Air Corps.

        Yeppers, the Air Force didn't come into being for any reason other than to create another seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And now the Space Force is doing the same thing - creating another seat on the Joint Chiefs.

    • Yes, a joke just like abandoning the salt treaty, hyper sonic missiles, bio warfare, political assassinations,... And not one mention of our "partners in space" China and Russia? How are their Olympics this time around BTW?
  • The race is on for the first movie shot in space. Yeah, the plot will be shit, the dialogue choppy and the stars painted on but just wait until you see the cast!

  • Wow. How do they do that? (!) (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tchdab1 ( 164848 ) on Sunday August 08, 2021 @01:14AM (#61668577) Homepage

    "...it beams that information back down to this ground station instantaneously, at the speed of light."
    The speed of light! As a selling point! As if these SF jockeys were the first to use this fundamental constant.
    I keep thinking we couldn't get more stupid & gullible.

    • Re:Wow. How do they do that? (!) (Score:4, Interesting)

      by CaptQuark ( 2706165 ) on Sunday August 08, 2021 @01:51AM (#61668635)

      Yeah, ask the average Joe on the street what the speed of light is and see how many can even get close. The only thing most people know is it means something is FAST.

      If you ask most people the following four questions, you'll be lucky to find anyone that can answer more than one:

      • What is the speed of light?
      • How far away from Earth is the Sun?
      • How long does it take the Earth to spin on its axis?
      • What keeps a satellite from falling back to Earth?

      • Re: Wow. How do they do that? (!) (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Sunday August 08, 2021 @02:21AM (#61668679) Homepage

        What is the speed of light? How far away from Earth is the Sun? How long does it take the Earth to spin on its axis? What keeps a satellite from falling back to Earth? 1. I've seen it abbreviated as 'c' so it can only be 'cunt' 2. Approximately 8 minutes at cunt speed 3. 23 hours and 54 seconds, the extra 6 seconds are added by the small arc the Earth travels around the Sun during that time. 4. Lack of air at that height. Gravity only works in the presence of air.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Gravity only works in the presence of air.

          This is actually an experiment you can try at home - hold your breath for long enough and you'll start too feel light-headed as the air inside you gets used up and gravity ceases to have its full effect.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward
          There's the proof that the moon landings were fake!
          There's no air on the moon so gravity can't work! Yet those astronauts always dropped down again.

          • You need to remember that the Moon is made of cheese and under the sunlight, the surface melts a little thus making it sticky and allowing the astronauts to walk.

        • Re: Wow. How do they do that? (!) (Score:5, Informative)

          by geantvert ( 996616 ) on Sunday August 08, 2021 @04:49AM (#61668839)

          Actually, that is 23h 56m 04s so 3m54s = 236s less than 24h. And if you multiply 236 by 365.24 you get 86197s = 23h56m36s ~= 24h which makes sense since during a full year, one day is caused by the rotation of Earth around the Sun and the rest by the rotation of Earth around its axis.

          • The original question did not specify solar time or sidereal time, so either answer (24 h or 23 h 56 m...) is correct. Depends on your frame of reference.

          • Thank you, I've asked this in the other direction: how many times does the earth revolve around it's own axis (with the sun / solar system taken as reference point). Most people come up to 365 times, smart people take leap years into account and come up with 365.25 times. Some nerds and astrologers get the answer right.

      • 1. 1 c
        2. 1 AU
        3. 1 day
        4. (c'mon, it was ALMOST funny)

      • The bad/sad thing is, lots of people may answer some or all of those questions, but wrongly, yet think they are right, and base their day to day decisions on similarly misguided ideas.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fazig ( 2909523 )
      We (and I'm using that term loosely, because there's plenty of stupid here as well) around here may not be impressed by fancy words like that any more, but there's plenty of other people who are.

      The scam artists have long realized that: There's a sucker born every minute.
      And with all the anti-intellectualism and pseudo science being pushed by large media (looking at you Rupert Murdoch, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and the likes) they're doing their part to keep it that way.

    • "...it beams that information back down to this ground station instantaneously, at the speed of light.

      So ... it uses radio?

      Well, thank god for that critical invention!

      • I think you're missing the point: that the reaction time is fast, despite the distance: the signal takes less than 1/10 second to get from geostationary orbit down to the receiving stations on Earth. (Actually, double that, because it takes the same amount of time for the light--or whatever--from the launch to get up to the satellite.)

  • The advantages of look down-shoot down are militarily irreplaceable.

    War is intrinsic to humanity and has not evolved by accident. Ability to wage it at least well enough to deter enemy action is a human social necessity. We are a savage aggressive race. It is the norm not the exception.

    • Can we eventually evolve past that point? In Europe (if we remove former Yugoslavia...) we've had the longest period of peace in recoded history. Is this finally the time, or are we just waiting for shit to hit the fan again

      • Love didn't keep the Warsaw Pact from crashing through the Fulda Gap nor does love contain renewed Russian expansionism.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by k0t0n ( 7251482 )
          Russia is a geopolitical problem indeed. At least it has Asian borders to worry about as well, potentially more than on west side, but Putin sure is playing on everyone's nerves. Still, these days in general it seems it's more profitable to exploit your opponent economically rather than waging total war (this doesn't apply to Russia and the unlucky neighboring countries). Cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns on social media are adding a new twist

  • Failure (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Lt. Col. Michael Mariner: "We never stop — always vigilant — and we never fail.

    If they never fail then we should probably be giving them something more challenging to do.

    • I get reminded of the old exchange in MASH over the sale of garbage:

      Burns: "Colonel, I will not disappoint you!"
      Potter: "Major, you couldn't even if you tried".

  • TL;DR: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Sunday August 08, 2021 @02:15AM (#61668671)

    They are doing exactly the same stuff they were doing as Air Force Space Command.

    • Not quite. They are doing it in their own department, meaning they get to spend more tax payer money on overhead achieving the same goal!

  • U.S.A.F. had all this shit down. Now we have another ring of 4-star Generals to pay for

  • So maybe it would be good if we set some definitive rules before we screw things up further.

    You know, like when we finally meet Native-Astronauts who are wondering why we're planting flags on their corn planets.

    • When the only "enforcers" of said rules are the ones most likely to break them, the rules exists only for PR purposes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

      Any alien race we meet in the near future will be so vastly superior to us that our flag-planting would resemble a colony of ants swarming around a dropped slice of bread. It's a curiosity at best and a minor nuisance at worst.

  • Makes me wanna smoke crack. In space. With the Guardians of the (cough) Galaxy to protect me.

    ---
    When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

  • Iran warned the US through Iraq who promptly informed the US that they had launched missiles, which gave the US time to take for cover. It was in the news everywhere.

  • This is an old problem. It's very difficult to protect satellites from debris. Most if not all lighter power space based "defense" technologies are far more effective to attack space targets, and are next to useless for defense. They can't target incoming attacks. There is a certain amount of hardening possible, but most of that hardening is done already to protect satellites or manned craft from solar radiation, solar heating, gamma rays, and the Van Allen belts.

    The higher energy "defense" projects, such a

    • It's offensive to everyone who pays taxes in the US allright...

    • Offense is defense, or anyway, it's part of it.

      The invention of explosives and particularly the cannon spelled the absolute end of the old school form of defense, where you just built something and it kept something out. That shit is over. Now there is only one kind of defense, defense in depth. You have to have sacrificial resources out beyond the resources you care about because the first notion you have that you're under attack can be losses.

      The higher energy "defense" projects, such as the nuclear pumped X-ray laser proposed for the Ronald Reagan era "Star Wars" program, can't be aimed at spacecraft.

      They sure can, if they're located in space. Atmosphere can be i

  • We never stop — always vigilant — and we never fail. Because that's how important this mission is to our nation. We provide decision-quality data to tactical war fighters on the ground, to save their lives.

    When you're at the top, the target's on your back. Everybody's shooting for you.

    I would bet on U.S. industry any day. It's a huge advantage that we have.

    That's some class-A propaganda you've got there, sonny.

  • This is indistinguishable from a paid advert. One wonders now that Trump is gone and the viewers with him, what CNN will come up with to make money.

  • Aren't these things at the top supposed to be summaries? Stop wasting my time with lazy copy-pastes, Slashdot.

  • Bitter truth (Score:3)

    by vbdasc ( 146051 ) on Sunday August 08, 2021 @07:37AM (#61668999)

    Russia and China also have directed-energy weapons, which can damage or disable U.S. satellites from a distance.

    It's not going to stop. USA is trying to defeat enemy ICBMs using satellites, but both Russia and China love their ICBMs too much to allow this to happen without a fight. Anything could be expected from now on - anti-satellite lasers, railguns, particle cannons, even bloody space nukes. Every side will be ready to blast enemy satellites off the sky, should the sh1t hit the fan, rules or no rules.

  • When there is an actual hot war between 2 of the super powers, whole of space will be denied to all of humanity for 100s of years due to kessler syndrome.

    And hopefully, when that happens, the rest of the world turns on those 2 super powers and destroys them, since they have set back humanity by centuries.

    • The only super power the world can do without on short notice is Russia. So I'm hoping rather that nobody tries destroying any super powers... especially given the risk of nuclear death throes

    • pfft, the "rest of the world" can't do shit which is why they aren't doing much in space. Only USA has put men on another world, and has put craft to the farthest reaches of space. Soviet Union had amazing achievement of landings on Venus and balloon probes in atmosphere, robotic rover on moon... but bureaucracy mostly tore their space exploration program apart, and being a shitty form of government tore Soviet Union apart, lolz.

      • If the world was denied space access 40 years ago, before internet, instant communications, various forms of GPS, weather monitoring, etc from space was even a thing, nobody would have noticed. Now whole world is dependant on space access, directly or indirectly.

        Right now, as I recall, there are many other nations/blocs sending stuff to space, without being a super power. Some of the bigger ones are EU, India, Japan, etc. Even Iran, North Korea, etc claim to be sending up the occasional rockets / satellites

  • Who cares. The US military creates its own problems. Sure glad they are taking literally tens of thousands of dollars from me every year to wave around their dicks in space.

  • From the opening line, "Space Force Guardians, as they're known, fly the nation's missile warning satellites", which are in geosynch. How much delta-v do they have? Are they allowed to change their orbits, or do they have to keep the same target area centered? My guess is, as far as delta-v, not a lot (gotta preserve some for graveyard orbit), and re orbit changes, not without permission from way up (barring emergency). So can they be said to "fly" the satellites, or are they watching the results and wa

  • Famous last words.

  • I should care what CNN puts out? Better to listen to alien theories from flat earthers.

  • No US territory has been attacked by a foreign military wince WWII.
    No US state has been invaded since 1812.

    None of the military industrial complex was ever about defending the United States. It was always about taking over from the Brits as the biggest imperialist assholes on the planet.

  • Funny that the party of limited government keep creating new Government Departments that create their own management chains, multilevel bureaucracy and governmental inefficiencies. Dept of Homeland Security (cabinet level under Bush Jr) and Space Force under Trump.

  • This is the sequel to Team America, right? Space Force! Can't wait to see it!

  • If I could finagle some kind of honorary commission in the Space Force then I think my life would be complete...

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