It's about time that we start focusing on what is taking place in Space. Effective Feb 1st. Recently the Russians have been moving a satellite around in the GSO. Something which our people thought was strange. To top it off the Chinese have been trying to put up Sats that would encase ours. Plus one with an active arm attached to the Sat. The service is reorganizing for battle in space, but threats may be progressing faster than fixes...... “Today, two 19-year-old airmen are the two guys flying GPS this morning for the entire world,” the commander of Air Force Space Command told an audience in December. “That’s wrong.” On February 1, the Air Force will stand up a Space Mission Force at the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, the first of several steps meant to put more experienced and ready people in charge of watching U.S. military satellites. The new force will include 352 people across four squadrons. Half of them will conduct operations while the other half is training. Each squadron will operate with four crews on 12-hour shifts, supported by a mission planning cell that includes orbit analysts, intel professionals, engineers, and mission specialists. Later this year, the Air Force will stand up two more Space Mission Force crews in Colorado: one at the 21st Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base and then one at the 460th Space Wing at Buckley Air Force Base. The change is one of many that the military is undertaking to beef up its defenses to space assets. It will also boost planned spending on space by up to $8 billion over the next five years. In a recent white paper from the Center for New American Security, or CNAS, Elbridge Colby called this “an especially serious signal of how gravely the Pentagon takes the problem in light of how precious such funds are since the enactment of the Budget Control Act of 2011.” Those threats include everything from anti-satellite missiles to jamming to lasers. Of these, jamming is the most common and likely, but anti-satellite missiles are improving quickly. In 2007, China shot down one of their own weather satellites in what was seen by many as a provocative display. In 2013, a Chinese missile reached 18,600 miles in space, just shy of the 22,236-mile orbits where U.S. geosynchronous satellites fly. China’s not alone. In November, Russia also demonstrated an anti-satellite missile called the Nudol.....snip~ http://www.defenseone.com/technolog...-counter-russia-china/125568/?oref=d-dontmiss
Mysterious Actions of Chinese Satellites Have Experts Guessing.... A set of three mysterious satellites has experts guessing about the Chinese space program's intentions. No one really knows what the Chinese are up to, and everything is speculation. That appears to be the consensus of space experts tracking a set of Chinese spacecraft. Some have speculated that the Chinese are testing possible anti-satellite technology, while others have described the satellites as prosaic probes meant to sharpen the country's overall space skills. Under debate are the orbital antics of several newcomers to space — the Chinese satellites Shiyan-7, Chuangxin-3 and Shijian-15 — which all launched into orbit together on July 20. Experts are also discussing the actions of China's elder spacecraft Shijian-7, which launched more than eight years ago. "Suddenly, however, it made a surprise rendezvous with a completely different satellite, Shijian 7 (SJ-7, Practice 7), launched in 2005," noted Marcia Smith, a space policy analyst and founder and editor of SpacePolicyOnline.com. Soon after the July launch, it was known that one of the three satellites carried "a prototype manipulator arm to capture other satellites," a tool that might be "a predecessor of an arm destined to be aboard China's large space station, set for launch in 2020 or soon thereafter," wrote Bob Christy on zarya.info. (SpacePolicyOnline.com also reported the news.) "Beijing and Washington have a choice to make, the same choice that Moscow and Washington faced during the Cold War," Krepon said.....snip~ - See more at: http://www.space.com/22707-china-satellite-activities-perplex-experts.html#sthash.NUMIxi1T.dpuf What does it look like China is doing?
Does anyone think the UN will get the Chinese to Share their Space Station? 2020 isn't that far off. Then they will have it operational. Or shortly thereafter.
12 hour shifts, seems like a pretty long shift to me. 12 hours on and 12 hours off ??? Or 12 on 24 off ? I read an old study that the Air Force conducted that was used by the DOT to determine on how many hours a truck driver would be allowed to drive per day. The Air Force had these airmen sitting at watching a radar screen for hours. After 10 hours of staring at a radar screen the airmen started hallucinating. One airman was actually seeing elephants on the radar screen. When I was in the Nam I was suppose to pull duty at the FSCC, monitoring a radio and and checking the gun target lines on a map making sure that a naval gun or artillery rounds cleared mountain tops, etc. For the first few days I was a happy camper but the job got old really quick and I wanted to get back out in the bush. It's been over 46 years so my memory isn't that great but I can't remember how long the shifts were, 8 on 8 off or 6 on 6 off or 4 on 8 off. I know it sure wasn't 12 on and 12 off. Or was it ? Just don't remember. After (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)ing enough I only had to pull three weeks in the FSCC and got my own spot team and got back out in the bush eating C-Rats again.
Its all changed up now as of Feb 1st.....we should put up another space station but this time, one on the moon. What does it look like the Chinese have been doing to you?
I would go for a station on the moon. Moon Station with weapons. Do you really think that the USA, Russia and the chi-coms don't have weapons in space ? I wonder if the chi-coms use chop-sticks in space ?
We signed some treaty with the UN that we wouldn't go and build anything on the moon. But that was back then. Today is a different story. NASA talked about one before. That it would have to be underground mostly. I am more concerned with what the Chinese are doing with their Sats. As it appears they are looking to incapsulate our grid.
Go to war with the chi-coms or Russia the first battles will take place in space knocking out satellites. The side who has gotten to dependent on technology will be defeated on the battlefield. There's a reason why the sextant and celestial navigation is being taught again in the navy. The Air Force B-52, B1 and B-2 and tanker pilots better start brushing up on their celestial navigation skills. Bring back the navigation officer as being part of the flight crew.
It not so much about taking out Sats. What do you think happens if China continues to encapsulate our Sats. Not only could they take out Key points. But the entire grid. Or tap it. I don't see any of our Sats out beyond theirs. To me that's a problem waiting to happen.
