Air and Space Forces Magazine — The U.S. Space Force is planning improvements at its launch ranges to better accommodate the logistics and infrastructure demands that come with the launch industry’s shift toward reusable rockets.
Space Force Top Buyer Says Rapid Commercial Innovation is Reshaping Military Space Strategy
SpaceNews — Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the U.S. Space Force’s top acquisition officer told an audience of space industry executives that the Pentagon’s future in orbit will depend on how effectively it harnesses private-sector innovation.
Report: Space Force and SPACECOM Need Cross-Domain Support to Gain Superiority
Air and Space Forces — Jennifer Reeves, senior resident fellow for space studies at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies: “The prevailing and historic mindset in the Department of Defense is that space is a supporting domain. This must change to reflect the new reality—operations in all domains are needed to support space operations.”
China Researches Ways to Disrupt Satellite Internet
Dark Reading — Sam Wilson, Aerospace’s director of strategy and national security at the Center for Space Policy and Strategy: “While knocking out a single asset would cause damage and potentially escalate conflict, it would not achieve taking the entire constellation offline. This has pushed adversaries to consider other types of threat vectors, including [electronic warfare] and cyber.”
Space Governance: Policy and Regulatory Frameworks
T-Minus Podcast — The Aerospace Corporation presented ‘Space Governance: Policy and Regulatory Frameworks’ at the Caribbean Space Summit.
Three Chinese Astronauts Were Stuck in Space. Here’s Why it Keeps Happening.
The Washington Post — “There’s also debris that’s so small we can’t track it,” said Grant Cates, a senior project leader for the Space Architecture Department at the Aerospace Corporation. “In [the Shenzhou incident], it probably might have been an untracked piece of debris that struck the spacecraft.”
Debrief: At Age 6, Space Force Maturing Acquisition Processes
Aviation Week — USSF Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman outlined ambitious plans to overhaul the service’s acquisition system and force structure. “We’re moving away from a fixed, all-or-nothing ops acceptance milestone in favor of smaller, more frequent delivery increments.”
Report: Space Force Needs More Funding, Training to Counter China’s Space Ambitions
Air and Space Forces — In its annual report to Congress, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission highlights China’s “aggressive long-term, whole-of-government campaign” to gain an edge over the U.S. in space. “In just 10 years, China has dramatically transformed an almost nonexistent commercial space sector into a thriving, state-orchestrated startup ecosystem.”
NASA, Aerospace Corporation Study Sharpens Focus on Ammonia Emissions
Space Daily — Aerospace’s David Tratt, who co-authored the paper, said: “We ended up with maps that identify multiple sources of ammonia, and we were able to track the plumes from their sources and observe them coalescing into larger clouds.”
Space Junk Strike on China’s Astronaut Capsule Highlights Need for a Space Rescue Service, Experts Say
Space.com — Aerospace’s Grant Cates (senior project leader in launch operations for the Space Safety Institute), Marlon Sorge (executive director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS)), and Brian Weeden (director of civil and commercial policy at the Center for Space Policy and Strategy) all commented on an incident where a suspected impact of space debris cracked a window on China’s Shenzhou 20 crew’s return vessel.