Delta IV blasts off with threat-detecting military satellites

Another pair of military spacecraft designed to detect “space mines” and other potential threats to U.S. satellites are safely in orbit.

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket blasted off at 12:52 a.m. Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, rumbling southeast over the Atlantic Ocean into a clear night sky brightened by a nearly full moon.

On top of the 206-foot rocket were the second set of satellites forming a “neighborhood watch” that the Air Force hopes will discourage an adversary from trying to take out critical communications or surveillance assets in space.

“The space domain has increasingly become congested, contested, and competitive,” Lt. Sarah Burnett, a spokeswoman for Air Force Space Command, said in an e-mail. “Some countries have clearly signaled their intent and ability to conduct hostile operations in space as an extension of the terrestrial battlefield.”

The two new satellites, along with two launched in 2014, will patrol a belt that wraps around the equator more than 22,000 miles up.

That’s a valuable region where military and commercial satellites match the speed of Earth’s rotation, and so appear to fly in fixed positions high over the planet in what are called geosynchronous or geostationary orbits.

The Air Force’s once-classified Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, plans to fly four satellites slightly above and below the “GEO belt,” where they'll circle it and weave from side to side to capture up-close views of everything flying there.

One concern is the potential for “space mines,” small spacecraft that could sneak up to a large national security satellite and disable it through an explosion or other means.

Delta IV launch to help detect threats to satellites

A report released this week by the National Academies, titled “National Security Space Defense and Protection,” cited an urgent need to develop policies and programs that will better protect vulnerable space systems relied upon by both the military and many civilians.Examples include communications, surveillance and missile warning spacecraft in high orbits and, lower down, the Global Positioning System.

The report cited efforts by Russia and China to develop anti-satellite systems, and the potential for non-state actors to gain access to them as space technology grows smaller and more affordable.

In addition to thwarting potential attacks, the new satellites, built by Orbital ATK, should help catalog natural or man-made debris that can be difficult to track from the ground. A collision with even a tiny piece of space junk could cripple a satellite.

SpaceX booster back in Port Canaveral

The surveillance spacecraft also are able to inspect U.S. satellites experiencing problems, helping to diagnose problems and possibly to confirm if they were caused by internal failure or hostile action.

That type of inspection is known to have been performed on at least two Navy communications satellites, including one launched this summer from Cape Canaveral that has been stalled in the wrong orbit due to a propulsion system failure.

That same ability to approach close to other spacecraft, however, could be interpreted by some nations as posing an offensive threat.

The Air Force disclosed the GSSAP program’s existence as a deterrent, but does not reveal where the spacecraft are flying or what they are up to. Friday's launch Webcast was blacked out five minutes into the flight to help preserve the mission's secrecy; ULA confirmed the launch was successful more than seven hours later.

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Burnett said the program is designed to safely rendezvous with spacecraft to resolve failures, providing clear views unobstructed by weather or atmosphere, and to “investigate disturbances in the space domain.”

“The U.S. is not seeking to weaponize space,” she said. “Our goal is to work with all responsible space-faring nations to ensure a safe, secure, sustainable, and stable space environment.”

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.