NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Aug 13, 2023

The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared

This floating ring is the size of a galaxy. In fact, it is a galaxy – or at least part of one: the photogenic Sombrero Galaxy, one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. The dark band of dust that obscures the mid-section of the Sombrero Galaxy in optical light actually glows brightly in infrared light. The featured image, digitally sharpened, shows the infrared glow, recently recorded by the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope, superposed in false-color on an existing image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in visible light. The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as M104, spans about 50,000 light years across and lies 28 million light years away. M104 can be seen with a small telescope in the direction of the constellation Virgo.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

Red Flag 23-3: Uniting US armed forces

Aug. 8, 2023

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) –

Red Flag 23-3 has come to a close for more than 2,000 U.S. Air Force, Space Force, Marine Corps, Navy and Air National Guard that ran from July 17 to August 4. Although it started at Nellis Air Force Base, it concluded with multiple units dispersed to parts of Southern California.

“The last week of Red Flag 23-3 occurred in conjunction with the U.S. Navy,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Eric Winterbottom, 414th Combat Training Squadron commander. “Integrating the Air Force and Navy into a large-scale exercise places emphasis on joint planning, communication and execution to enhance interoperability and joint operational effectiveness.”

The exercise incorporated realistic scenarios that tested the participants' ability to integrate their operations seamlessly. Joint missions involving U.S. Air Force and Navy assets focused on a range of mission sets, including air-to-air combat, strike operations and intelligence gathering. By training together in a simulated combat environment, the Air Force and Navy enhanced their interoperability and gained a deeper understanding of each other's capabilities and tactics.

“The Department of Defense prioritizes the People’s Republic of China as our number one pacing challenge,” Winterbottom said. “By training together in a realistic and challenging environment, the USAF and Navy enhanced their joint capabilities, bolstering the nation's ability to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

One of the primary objectives of Red Flag 23-3 was to strengthen the integration between the U.S. Air Force and Navy. With the future of warfighting requiring close coordination between the two services, the exercise provided an excellent opportunity for joint training and collaboration.

This premier large-force employment has always brought multiple branches of the U.S. military together to enhance joint warfighting capabilities. This iteration of Red Flag aimed to foster collaboration and interoperability between the participating services and focused on unique challenges and scenarios.

“As the new commander, my priority for future Red Flag exercises is to ensure realism and relevance,” Winterbottom said. “Red Flag will continue to expand into long-range, dispersed, joint and coalition, peer-contested training scenarios. We also train to respond to and effectively deter nation-state threats emanating from Russia, Iran and North Korea, and transnational and non-state actor threats from violent extremist organizations, such as those operating in the Middle East, Africa, and South and Central Asia.”

Air Force assets, such as the F-35A Lightning II, F-22 Raptor, KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-46 Pegasus, B-1B Lancers and HH-60G Pavehawk worked in conjunction with Navy assets that included the EA-18G Growler and carrier-based aircraft and surface vessels, to develop seamless operational synergy.

https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3490619/red-flag-23-3-uniting-us-armed-forces/

SSC’s Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking Team Applies Combined Space Assets and Data Capabilities During Real-World Multi-National Training Exercise

Aug. 10, 2023

A small team of Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking (SRT) Guardians from Space Systems Command (SSC) recently participated in a real-world multi-national training exercise in South America that included some very real-life operations.

The SRT team was invited by the U. S. Space Command’s Joint Task Force-Space Defense Commercial Operations Cell (JCO) to Lima, Peru to take part in RESOLUTE SENTINEL 23 (RS23), a U.S. Southern Command multi-national exercise, held at the Centro Nacional de Operaciones de Imagenes Satelitales (CNOIS) from June 28 through July 8.

“I am overwhelmed by the professionalism of the combined joint space team,” said Lt Col Jonathan Whitaker, USSOUTHCOM Director of Space Forces. “Our hosts in Peru and Colombia gave us a worldclass opportunity to test operational aspects of the future Space Forces Southern Component Field Command. We exceeded every goal for this exercise.”

The four-member SRT team from SSC was joined by their counterparts from six allied nations Peru, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, and the United Kingdom for a total of 28 people participating, said Lt. McKenna G. Medina, SSC’s SRT site lead.

SSC’s SRT team looked forward to using the exercise as a “sandbox” to test its ability to deliver useful Operational Planning Products (OPPs) to unified combatant command users at relevant timelines. Currently, OPPs are commercially developed products that answer operational questions generated by the combatant commands. These products can be used to identify such things as maritime awareness, illegal fishing/resource extraction, or to highlight humanitarian issues.

“The best part about Operational Planning Products is that they’re non-classified,” Medina said. “They give users the flexibility to share commercial data with international partners.”

The team contributed to two real-world operations during the exercise. First, the team identified and geo-located a vessel suspected of illegally fishing in Peruvian waters. This led to SOUTHCOM tasking a USAF C-130 to over-fly the vessel and enabled Peruvian Coast Guard members to train on locating and identifying potential illegal fishing in their waters, said Lt. Col. Vinny Pande, SSC’s persistent tactical surveillance branch chief and a member of SSC’s SRT team.

The illegal fishing OPP included historical tracks of potentially illegal fishing boats: ships that had turned off their radar and gone “dark,” among other details, Medina said.

Second, the team supported disaster planning by imaging a volcano that showed signs of a impending eruption in Columbia. SRT delivered commercial SAR-sensing products (a measure of radio frequency) to the Colombian government in support of humanitarian response planning. The team provided data from space showing status conditions of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia compared side-by-side to data from a Peruvian volcano that had recently erupted, Medina said.

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“This demonstrates real-world scenarios of space assets and commercial data capabilities to defend and protect land, sea and orbital,” Medina said. “Some of these countries are in the initial phases of using space to help them out. Helping them recognize that maybe we could was really cool.”

Capt. Benjamin L. Berezin, SSC deputy branch chief and SRT team member, added that it was eye-opening to see partner nation imagery applications because it gave the team’s analysts new avenues to work with partners.

The multi-national aspect of the exercise was ideal for validating that the OPPs could be released to partner nations in support of SOUTHCOM’s objectives, Medina said. Berezin noted that the facilities were state-of-the-art and allowed the SSC team to showcase their capabilities. The CNOIS itself was built in the shape of the cupola, the European Space Agency-built observatory module of the International Space Station.

“I thought that was really cool and how we’re helping to provide that window into commercial space for the other nations,” Berezin said.

“They welcomed us with open arms,” Medina said. “It was really just a melting pot of everyone’s space expertise and gave us a good understanding of the use cases that we may support in the future.”

“This effort truly showcases the benefit of commercial technology to Combatant Commands and partner nations,” said Col. Minpo “Po” Shiue, director, SSC’s Warfighter Integration Office. “As the news of SRT’s success spreads, we expect all Combatant Commands to seek out this capability. INDOPACOM has already expressed an interest to be the focus AOR (Area of Responsibility) for the next SRT effort.”

The SRT team, part of SSC’s Space Sensing program executive office, is now working on developing a six-month pilot program to assess AFRICOM’s needs for commercial sensing and analytics products.

“This is designed to help the combatant commands with their geographic priorities,” Pande said.

Exercises like RESOLUTE SENTINEL help SSC understand and refine combatant command tactical imagery requirements. In turn, SSC can work with U.S. space industry to meet those needs with existing tools and capabilities.

https://www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/Newsroom/Article-Display/Article/3490044/sscs-surveillance-reconnaissance-and-tracking-team-applies-combined-space-asset

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