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Intelsat: ‘We’d put a sensor on every satellite’
April 2nd, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Michael Hoffman
Richard DalBello, a vice president with Intelsat which has the world’s largest commercial satellite fleet, spoke with the Show Scout about space surveillance and the relationship between the space industry and the U.S. military on that issue.
Q: How is the relationship building between the U.S. military and the space industry in regards to improving space surveillance?
A: Last year at Strategic Space in Omaha, Neb., our CEO stood up and said we’d put a sensor on every satellite.
Q: What are some of the challenges you see with data sharing between commercial companies and the government?
A: The initial one is that it can’t interfere with the commercial mission. We wouldn’t be a sensor program. We’re not looking to replace a military program. What we’re saying is if you have developed optical or IR wave length sensor that would be relevant to this mission, and if you could supply it, we would be interested in putting them on our satellites. It’s a mutual benefit because obviously we would look to have some lease revenue from that but we’d also contribute data. Eventually you could have the whole geo-arc linked with sensor so you could have better awareness for what is going on.
Q:How far off is the military and space industry from making serious progress on relationship to collect large amounts of data from commercial satellites?
A: It’s a slow progress. It’s hard to get people to work across company boundaries and really hard to get people to work across international boundaries. We’re closer than anything on the data center, but we’re still not there yet. What we said is that if we can actually create this model where you could add other things, like you could easily add RF interference data on top of that. But there is a lot that goes into it. You have a lot of issues. You have to deal with all the legal issues and liability and identification. You have to deal with practical technical issues and validation of information. How do you know something is true.
Tags: Air Force, Intelsat, National Space Symposium 2009, space surveillance
Thinking positive on TSAT
March 31st, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Ben Iannotta
U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. John "Tom" Sheridan outlines his satellite buying approach.
If the proposed multibillion dollar Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) is about to meet the Obama administration’s budget axe, the U.S. Air Force general in charge of satellite acquisitions wasn’t letting on.
Lt. Gen. John “Tom” Sheridan outlined the Air Force’s approach of building successively more complicated versions of satellites, holding the line on requirements, and investing in research early in programs. He said the Space and Missile Systems Center, which he commands, “is working really hard to try to do this on both GPS 3 and TSAT as we start those activities up.”
Sheridan said “both of these are postured to be developed following these acquisition characteristics.”
After his talk, I asked him if this meant TSAT would not be cut: “I don’t have any picture of what the seniors in the department are really deciding, but we at SMC are following what we’ve been given as [decision memos] that tell us to move out with the program. So until we’re told to do differently, we’re getting ready to do that.”
Tags: Air Force, satellite, transformational
Ranking the top threats in space
March 31st, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Michael Hoffman
A panel of officials with representatives from the Air Force, industry and even a former astronaut were asked what they see as the largest threat to U.S. space assets. Here are their answers:
Col. Dusty Tyson, chief of the Air Force’s Space Control Division
“Not knowing what everything is on orbit scares me. I am still interested in knowing what everything is at least at the geosynchronous level.”
Richard Dalbello, vice president of Intelsat General Corporation
“A focused cyber attack could be severely disabling. Not necessarily now but the technology that will evolve over the next decade…We have a lot of stuff in space that needs to be protected.”
Donald R. McMonagle, former astronaut and manager of NASA’s Launch Integration Space Shuttle Program
“Orbital debris. There were times when we had to bring astronauts back inside the space station because of fears of collisions from space debris. If there was an impact that would cause catastrophic damage.”
Tags: Air Force, Intelsat General Corporation, NASA, satellite, space, threat
Space surveillance sat must wait
March 31st, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Ben Iannotta
Technicians prepare the Space Based Space Surveillance satellite for launch.
Boeing and Ball Aerospace have finished building and testing the U.S. Air Force’s Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite. Now they need a rocket to send it to orbit, where it would use its electro-optical camera to track and image geosynchronous satellites and space debris.
The SBSS satellite was scheduled to ride into space “about now” on an Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur 4 rocket, said Boeing’s Todd Citron, who oversees the program. But the U.S. Air Force is awaiting the results of an investigation into a February launch failure involving a similar Orbital Sciences rocket, the Taurus. That rocket deposited a NASA carbon-monitoring satellite into the Pacific Ocean instead of low-Earth orbit.
The contractors are anxious to see SBSS reach space successfully, and soon. The February destruction of an Iridium satellite in a collision with a defunct Russian communications satellite has renewed emphasis on space surveillance in the U.S. and among commercial satellite operators.
A successful SBSS mission could “drive a demand for follow-ons,” said Ball’s Fred Doyle, vice president and general manager of national defense programs fro the company.
Boeing is the SBSS prime contractor and is providing the ground control equipment and software at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. Ball built the spacecraft’s frame and attached its moveable camera.
Tags: Air Force, Ball Aerospace, Boeing, rocket OCO SBSS Ball Aerospace, SBSS
No shortage of work after cyberworkshop
March 30th, 2009 | Uncategorized | Posted by Ben Iannotta
Designing a cybersecurity system? Lockheed Martin's Eric Cole says you need five things.
It’s easy to see what people mean when they say U.S. cybersecurity capabilities are in a sorry state.
The country is very much at the beginning of understanding this threat and how to defend against it, according to panelists at a March 30 workshop held by Air Force Space Command.
For starters, there is no standard terminology across the industry and government about what exactly is meant by such terms as cyberattack and cyberthreat.
Even the term “data theft,” which sounds easy enough to understand, is a misnomer according to Eric Cole, chief scientist at Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services, and a member of the Obama administration’s cyber security commission. Really, the term should be “data copying,” which is actually a lot worse than out right theft, he said. The intruder wants to copy your data and do it stealthily, so you never know that your defense plans have been compromised until you try to use them.
How much work lies ahead? “We can’t even name all of the connection points that the government has to the Internet,” said Cole.
He then listed five prerequisites for establishing secure networks: a security policy; dollars; a team; a firewall; and an alert system.
One piece of good news, sort of, is that the more a network is probed or pinged by an enemy, the more secure U.S. software engineers ought to be able to make the network.
“We look at the body’s immune system as an example here,” said Kamal Jabbour, senior scientist for information assurance at the Air Force Research Laboratory office in Rome, N.Y.
Tags: Air Force, cybersecurity, space command
Key space leaders flock to Colorado Springs
March 29th, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Michael Hoffman
Space leaders will huddle over the next four days at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Col., for the 25th National Space Symposium.
Officials from across the space community including Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, National Reconnaissance Office director Scott Large and even Bill Nye “The Science Guy” are scheduled to speak.
This year’s theme is “the Next Space Age” as the U.S. enters its 51st year of space flight, but more immediate topics such as the expansion of the Chinese space program and the level of funding space assets receive in the President’s budget will certainly garner attention.
The number of exhibitors has dropped from the 350 who attended last year to 140 this year in what would appear to be an effect of the global economic crises, but the Show Scout will be in Colorado Springs all week.
Check back for updates.
Tags: Air Force, China, National Space Symposium 2009, NRO