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Satellite terminal supplier CopaSAT storms into military market
April 1, 2024
CopaSAT, a supplier of communications equipment, is seeing a surge in orders for its militarized Starshield satellite terminal since its launch a few months ago.
The company, based in Seminole, Florida, designed a ruggedized satellite internet terminal that uses the Starshield electronically steered antenna built by SpaceX.
Starlink is the SpaceX satellite constellation that provides broadband internet access around the world. Consumers can purchase Starlink dishes for residential and commercial use but the system has also proven valuable for providing internet in disaster zones, aboard aircraft and ships, and for military and government applications.
SpaceX offers a Starshield version of the Starlink service that has enhanced encryption intended for government and military use.
The problem with the standard Starshield terminal is that it lacks the durability required for harsh battlefield environments, said Charlie Daniels, CopaSAT’s director of business development.
To fill that need, CopaSAT built a 30-pound militarized terminal called Storm V3 that sells for $30,000. Inside a hardened enclosure is the Starshield antenna, power systems and other components. A number of U.S. military organizations, said Daniels, have ordered about 150 terminals since the product was launched in August.
In tests, the terminals showed they can survive extreme temperatures, vibration, dust and other punishing conditions, he said. The standard Starshield dish has additional cybersecurity compared to the regular Starlink terminal, but it can’t handle the environmental conditions of military operations and when the cables break, they can’t be repaired in the field.
Other military features added
Another feature of the Storm V3 is that it can switch between AC power and batteries or DC power, a crucial feature for mobile units, said Daniels. The standard Starshield terminal only runs on AC power.
Also, standard Starshield terminals come with proprietary cables that require complete replacement if damaged. CopaSAT’s version is outfitted with military-approved connectors, allowing for battlefield repairs without needing entirely new cables.
At the request of military users, CopaSAT equipped its terminal with a SIM card slot, enabling the network to seamlessly switch between satellite and cellular service to ensure uninterrupted communication even if the satellite link is temporarily unavailable.
Daniels said CopaSAT’s road to becoming a Starshield terminal supplier was a pivot born of necessity.
Founded in 2014, the company initially built ruggedized satellite terminals using electronically steered antennas from Kymeta. But when Kymeta brought that capability in-house, CopaSAT was forced to re-evaluate its business.
The dawn of Starlink as a disruptive satellite internet service presented an opportunity for CopaSATto apply its ruggedization expertise, he said. “Starlink was just taking off and we saw there would be a demand for a militarized version that could go places the standard dish couldn’t survive.”
https://spacenews.com/satellite-terminal-supplier-copasat-storms-into-military-market/
NASA astronaut reveals major changes to his body after setting record for longest time spent in space
updated Apr 1, 2024, 18:16:57 GMT+1
Last year, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio set a world record for the longest time spent in space by a US astronaut after an impressive 371 days.
The 48-year-old returned to Earth on September 27, 2023, landing in Kazakhstan after his six-month mission was extended by a further six months.
Upon his landing back on Earth, Rubio said he would be assessed by a medical team and that he would need time to re-adjust to Earth's gravity.
But while the incredible record will cement the astronaut's time in space in history, his year-long escapade had some effects on the astronaut.
While most of us Earth-dwellers would never even think of the consequences of such a long time in space, it was revealed what the cost of living without gravity for such an extended period of time actually is.
In actual fact, the lack of gravity will cause a decrease in muscle mass and even bone loss within the first few months of a mission.
Dr Jennifer Fogarty, chief scientific officer at Baylor College of Medicine's Translational Research Institute for Space Health, told ABC News at the time: "How do you coordinate movement like walking, which you haven't done for a long period of time, and then the idea of balance?
"When you put those two together, it can kind of create a little bit of a precarious situation and something that's very well-monitored with the crew members when they land on Earth."
Dr Fogarty went on to explain that the longer the mission goes on for, the longer it will likely take for the astronaut to reacclimatize when back on Earth.
Not only this, but a person's blood flow can also be heavily affected when living in space, which can cause symptoms such as blurred vision or eye swelling, due blood and cerebrospinal fluid shifting up the body - known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome.
According to Dr Michael Decker, co-director of the Center for Aerospace Physiology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, the veins in our body have valves in them to ensure 'blood doesn't flow backwards when we stand up'.
Remove gravity from the equation and it has a impact on blood flow.
"Some of this increased intracranial pressure can actually impact the eye and lead to visual impairment. Sometimes when astronauts land, that visual impairment does not necessarily resolve." he further explained.
The isolated environment could also cause fatigue, stress and lack of sleep.
During his time in space, Rubio's mental and physical health would have been assessed by scientists, as well as his immune system and any changes to his genes.
And in January of this year, Rubio revealed he'd spent four months back on Earth recovering and 'reincorporating [himself] back into Earth.'
"You adapt incredibly quickly to being in space, but then unfortunately, the readaptation process back to earth can sometimes be a little bit longer and more difficult." he told TIME.
"And that's just, I think, because the forces of gravity and the forces at play here on Earth tend to have a stronger effect on your body. So it takes two to three months to get yourself back to where you were pre-flight. I'm feeling pretty normal."
"At this point, I feel like I'm back to 90-95%. So lots of exercise, lots of testing, and science."
https://www.unilad.com/technology/nasa/nasa-astronaut-frank-rubio-changes-body-space-570136-20240401
Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
April 2, 2024
The Air Force Safety Center released a new strategic plan outlining new goals and focus areas to align with Department of the Air Force priorities.
The DAF Safety Strategic Plan establishes the requirements for the enterprise to achieve its vision in support of national and department-level guidance. The plan will be used to identify resource requirements, prioritize activities, align manpower, and provide the insights necessary for safety professionals to make decisions at their level as appropriate.
The new mission statement, “Increase combat power through Risk Management, Training, and Analysis,” highlights the need to exploit the latest technology tools and professional expertise to analyze mishaps and operational trends, building support for risk-informed decisions at all levels of leadership. While the new vision, an operational force maximizing readiness in any environment, acknowledges the DAF is foremost an operational force responsible for defending the homeland and national interests against adversaries.
“As safety leaders, it’s our job to ensure the safety enterprise is trained, agile, and ready to integrate new Air Force operational concepts to deter, and if needed defeat, great power competitors,” said Maj. Gen. Sean Choquette, DAF chief of safety and AFSC commander. “Safety’s job is to prepare our forces with the resources and skills to make risk-informed decisions at home or in combat.”
The strategic plan outlines six goals safety will prioritize going into the future:
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Fully Integrate Risk Management into All Training and Operations – ensure safety principles and risk management are infused into all facets of planning, preparation, execution, and assessment.
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Integrate Risk Management into Agile Combat Operations – develop and deploy the tools and training needed to help make informed risk decisions in ACE and future operating concepts.
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Evolve Support to the Space Enterprise – develop and implement plans, policies, and engagements to evolve support to the growing space enterprise
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Strengthen Nuclear Surety – continue ensuring nuclear safety and surety as well as weapons mishap prevention, explosive safety risk management, and system safety and design certification is robust, comprehensive, and responsive.
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Optimize Analytical Ecosystem and Data Fabric – employ emerging and innovative technology tools to provide predictive, and eventually prescriptive, analytical products to drive risk-informed decisions to operational commands across the DAF.
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Evolve and Modernize the Safety Workforce – evolve DAF Safety University, creating courses that touch on Air Force and Space Force safety, and employ modern training methods and tools.
The strategic plan also described risk management and the role it plays in the safety enterprise.
While there are inherent risks in all the DAF does, DAF safety incorporates policy development, systems acquisitions and testing, operational procedures, and data analysis to manage that risk and to support Airmen and Guardians. Risk management is not evaluating risk and deciding whether or not to take action. Combat requires action. Risk management entails utilizing an assessment and decision process to determine how to best mitigate risk in execution of the mission.
As part of the commitment to follow through, the DAF safety enterprise will be engaged and involved in both the execution and oversight of this strategy. To succeed, the strategic plan must be executed, tracked, assessed, adjusted and evaluated. This iterative process will drive information and analysis upwards to ensure tactical execution achieves planned strategic outcomes.
Choquette also described safety’s importance and why these focus areas are important.
“Safety is an operational imperative,” Choquette said. “Our work directly impacts Airmen and Guardians every single day. Ultimately, our safety mission relies upon the disciplined approach of individual Airmen and Guardians – they are the key component in our enterprise.”
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3727776/safety-enterprise-announces-new-mission-vision-goals-in-2024-strategic-plan/
https://www.af.mil/Portals/1/documents/DAF_Safety_Strategic_Plan.pdf
Assignment Incentive Pay to be authorized for Airmen, Guardians stationed at extremely cold locations
April 2, 2024
Effective April 1, the Department of the Air Force approved a new incentive pay for Airmen and Guardians assigned to qualifying bases in the U.S. where the temperature is expected to drop below minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cold Weather Assignment Incentive Pay is a single lump sum payment given to Airmen and Guardians after signing an agreement to serve a prescribed tour length of at least 12 months, depending on qualifying location.
Locations that meet this threshold include Minot and Grand Forks Air Force Bases and Cavalier Space Force Station in North Dakota, Clear Space Force Station, Eielson Air Force Base and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, as well as Malmstrom AFB, Montana.
“Airmen and Guardians living in extremely cold conditions faced unique out-of-pocket costs,” said Alex Wagner, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. “In addition to the assignment and retention benefits of the pay, it also comes down to making sure we do our best to take care of our service members and their families stationed at these critical installations.”
This payment intends to ease the financial burden of purchasing certain cold weather essentials, such as extreme cold weather gear, all-season and/or snow tires, tire mounts and alignments, engine block heaters and emergency winter car kits, as well as further incentivizing assignments.
Although AIP-CW is effective April 1, the first pay date is anticipated for July 1, 2024, meaning Airmen and Guardians who move to a qualifying location between April 1 and June 30 will receive payment retroactively.
The amount of AIP-CW Airmen and Guardians are eligible to receive is based on criteria in the five pay levels outlined in the table below and is subject to change.
This change follows the Department of Defense implementation of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which included language authorizing special duty pay for members based in cold-weather climate conditions and the FY24 NDAA, which clarifies the temperature parameters that qualify an area as a cold-weather location.
“We want to ensure Airmen, Guardians and their families have the resources needed to safely live and work in an extreme cold-weather environment,” Wagner added.
The official guidance memorandum can be found here.
https://www.af.mil/Portals/1/documents/2024SAF/Cold_Weather_Assignment_Incentive_Pay_Memorandum.pdf
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3727711/assignment-incentive-pay-to-be-authorized-for-airmen-guardians-stationed-at-ext/
Russia, China catching up to U.S. in space weaponry, new report finds
April 2, 2024
The Secure World Foundation on April 2 released its annual report, “Global Counterspace Capabilities: An Open Source Assessment,” that sheds light on the growing space arms race between the United States, Russia and China.
The report, compiled from publicly available information, details the counterspace capabilities — essentially space weapons — being developed by a dozen countries. Notably, it finds that Russia and China are rapidly catching up to the United States in key areas like electronic warfare and space domain awareness.
Both Russia and China have made significant strides in developing space-based electronic warfare tools that can disrupt or disable enemy satellites, the report found. This includes technologies like electronic jamming systems and directed energy weapons using lasers or microwaves.
The two countries have also caught up in the space domain awareness arena with advanced inspector satellites capable of maneuvering alongside orbiting spacecraft for up-close monitoring or attacks.
Russian seeking to regain Soviet-era dominance
Russia in particular has ramped up its space warfare capabilities over the last decade as it seeks to regain Soviet-era military advantages that were lost after the Cold War ended, according to the report.
While Pentagon and defense officials have raised alarms for years, the SWF report provides more granular details into the specific counterspace weapons being developed by Russia and China.
The SWF in its report briefly mentioned recent rumors of a new Russian program to develop nuclear-powered satellites that could slam the U.S. with electromagnetic pulses, potentially crippling huge portions of the military’s space asset fleet. It noted that details of this threat remain largely unknown.
For China, space weapons development is being driven by a desire to counter U.S. military superiority and increase its own regional clout, the report states. Beijing views the ability to nullify American space systems as key to deterring potential future conflicts.
It’s unclear if China intends to use offensive counterspace capabilities or just have them as a deterrent, the report says.
https://spacenews.com/russia-china-catching-up-to-u-s-in-space-weaponry-new-report-finds/
https://swfound.org/counterspace/
'UK Roswell' UFO debris analysis blows alien mystery open as 'hybrid tech didn't exist'
14:49, 2 APR 2024
Fresh analysis of debris found at the site where an unfamiliar flying craft crashed into trees decades ago blows open the question of whether or not aliens really do exist.
In January 1983, an object flying through the air hit trees near the small Welsh village of Llanilar, near Aberystwyth in the middle of the night.
Before it flew off seemingly undamaged, it scattered metal detritus across four fields.
Now 40 years on, new analysis of this metal ignites the debate of extraterrestrial lifeforms with startling revelations.
In an update on his recent book from Flying Disk Press, Europe's Roswell: 40 Years Since Impact, Mark Olly, a UFO expert and author, reveals evidence that suggests the object that hit the trees was from another planet, or at least not Earthly.
Olly wrote that The Wales Federation of Independent Ufologists "recovered about half a dozen pieces of metal and foil from the wooded area adjacent to the fields".
Three debris samples collected from the site, and looked after by fellow UFO expert Gary Rowe since, were sent to labs in Australia and America for new testing.
While Olly wrote that it had previously been believed that all the metal found was the same, the new analysis proved otherwise.
He noted: "Australia came in first as ‘Aluminums Foam’, partially agreeing with British Aerospace who back-in-the-day thought it was Aluminum in the form of Duralumin. America then returned their analysis as almost pure Lanthanum, an exotic and extremely expensive to produce metal on the new part of the periodic table."
Not only were the metals different, both Aluminum Foam and Lanthanum were not in circulation in 1983.
Olly wrote: "So we had two different metals in unique and specific forms that were not known to have been developed by the late 1970’s or available for actual use back in 1983. So was it one of ours, was it one of ‘theirs’, or was it some kind of back-engineered or hybrid technology?"
Further tests on the grey "resin" adhesives, the "none-aerodynamic green paint" found on the Aluminum, the "strange green rubber honeycomb coating" over the Lanthanum were inconclusive, whole the "honeycombed metal foil" was not analysed.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/uk-roswell-ufo-debris-analysis-32494065
Multiple UFO Sightings Over New York State Leave Witnesses Stumped
APRIL 2, 2024 9:54 AM
A passenger on a commercial flight from from Florida to New York City captured a mysterious metallic-looking UFO through the window of the plane.
“Watch It fly by over the top of the clip first few seconds… video was taken from a friend flying back from Florida to NYC. By far the clearest video I’ve ever seen,” the person who shared the footage on Reddit wrote.
When viewed at normal speed it is somewhat difficult to pick out the UFO in the sky with all of the background noise.
However, when slowed down, the object looks a lot like the classic flying saucer type of UFO.
“Here’s what I know about the footage,” The Hidden Underbelly 2.0 said about the video. “This was captured on March the 25th, 2024 from a flight leaving from Florida to New York City and this was what was caught at the New York City end of the flight.
“Now when we look at this object we can see that it’s tapered in and I don’t see the propellers where we would expect to see.
“If this was a drone and flying this close to a commercial airliner somebody would be in trouble if this was a drone. As for another plane, well, where’s the wings?”
Earlier this month a fleet of UFOs was spotted and recorded in the night sky over Lowville, New York.
According to the eyewitness, “You’ll see in the video, the lights that appeared, and just as they came slowly in the frame, the lights went out I have seen star link and this was not that.
“I have also seen in person military exercises using flares at night and this was also not that.
“I am big into looking at stars and very aware of the world around me and I slammed on my brakes.
“The first time I saw it didn’t get my phone out in time. I waited a minute or two and then it appeared once more and got the video just after it started, I waited around another 10 minutes and did not appear again, it seemed like it lit up pretty much in the same spot as the first time.”
https://brobible.com/culture/article/multiple-ufo-sightings-new-york-state-witnesses/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9YSjwkF8sM
https://twitter.com/i/status/1774477004756357623