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DoD Releases 2024 DoD Commercial Space Integration Strategy
April 2, 2024
Today, the Department of Defense released the 2024 DoD Commercial Space Integration Strategy. In line with the National Security Strategy and the 2022 National Defense Strategy, this strategy seeks to align the Department’s efforts and drive more effective integration of commercial space solutions into national security space architectures.
This strategy identifies four top-level priorities that the Department will pursue to maximize the benefits of integrating commercial space solutions:
Ensure access to commercial solutions across the spectrum of conflict;
Achieve integration prior to crisis;
Establish the security conditions to integrate commercial space solutions; and
Support the development of new commercial space solutions for use by the joint force.
The Department will adhere to four foundational principles in its strategy, balance, interoperability, resilience, and responsible conduct, to ensure that commercial solutions are integrated into national security space architecture.
To integrate commercial space solutions, the Department will work with commercial entities to mitigate risk as necessary and accept risk where appropriate. Such integration will help deny adversaries the benefits of attacks against national security space systems and contribute to a safe, secure, stable, and sustainable space domain.
https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3728370/dod-releases-2024-dod-commercial-space-integration-strategy/
https://media.defense.gov/2024/Apr/02/2003427610/-1/-1/1/2024-DOD-COMMERCIAL-SPACE-INTEGRATION-STRATEGY.PDF
Mother in son’s suitcase death claims NSA, Space Force tracking her
Updated: Apr 3, 2024 / 07:38 AM EDT
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ind. – A woman who spent nearly two years on the run after her son was found dead in a suitcase appeared in a Washington County court for her initial hearing.
Dejaune Anderson, 38, is being held without bond. She’s charged with murder, neglect of a dependent and obstruction of justice in connection with the death of 5-year-old Cairo Ammar Jordan.
In April 2022, a mushroom hunter in Washington County stumbled across a suitcase containing the boy’s remains and called 911. The case went unsolved for months, as investigators were unable to identify the remains.
In October 2022, six months after the suitcase was discovered, Indiana State Police revealed they’d identified the boy as Cairo. They also arrested Dawn Coleman—a friend of Anderson’s—and said they were looking for Anderson, a Georgia resident who’d bounced around different cities, including Houston, Las Vegas, San Diego and San Francisco.
The search for Anderson finally ended on March 14, 2024, when US Marshals caught up with her in California. She was booked into the Washington County Jail on March 31 and appeared in a Salem court for the first time on Tuesday.
The hearing lasted just 15 minutes, according to WDRB, but Anderson told the judge she’d been under “NSA surveillance” for months and questioned how she could be considered a fugitive when she was already being monitored. She also claimed a “detail from Space Force” was watching her every move.
Judge Larry Medlock ordered her held without bond and told Anderson he’d revisit the bond issue if “Space Force comes forward” to tell him they’re “willing to monitor” her. She’d due back in court later this month, court records indicated.
According to court documents, Anderson was convinced a demon lived inside her son. Multiple social media posts showed Anderson wrote about hexes and curses, “protection spells” and “reversal spells.” She wrote of rituals and said a 100-year-old demon inhabited her son’s body.
Coleman, who admitted she’d helped Anderson dump the 5-year-old boy’s body, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. In November 2023, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 5 years suspended to probation.
Coleman agreed to testify against Anderson as part of her plea deal.
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/mother-in-sons-suitcase-death-claims-nsa-space-force-tracking-her/
Meet the Mars Samples: Comet Geyser (Sample 24)
April 03, 2024
Meet the 24th Martian sample collected by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover – "Comet Geyser," a sample taken from a region of Jezero Crater that is especially rich in carbonate, a mineral linked to habitability. When the rover used its abrasion bit to grind away the surface of the rock, cameras showed interesting and diverse textures. It also spotted silica and carbonate, minerals that scientists know have the highest potential to preserve signs of ancient life on Earth. Could it have preserved signs of ancient life on Mars?
As of early April 2024, the Perseverance rover has collected and sealed 24 scientifically selected samples inside pristine tubes as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. The next stage is to get them to Earth for study.
Considered one of the highest priorities by the scientists in the Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032, Mars Sample Return would be the first mission to return samples from another planet and provides the best opportunity to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for ancient life. NASA is teaming with ESA (European Space Agency) on this important endeavor.
A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, as well as be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Read about all the carefully selected samples https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-rock-samples/
Learn more about the Mars Sample Return campaign https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/
TRANSCRIPT
Sample 24 is called “Comet Geyser,” and we collected it from the “Bunsen Peak” rock on the Margin Unit.
The Comet Geyser sample is really exciting for several reasons. This rock is dominated by silica and carbonate. These phases are known on Earth to be good at preserving biosignatures.
Carbonate is a phase that forms in association with fluids such as water, which is really important in our search for evidence for past life on Mars
It’s still a little bit of a mystery what this rock is. There are interesting textures that could be consistent with either an igneous rock or a sedimentary rock.
SAMANTHA GWIZD
GEOLOGIST & SCIENCE OPERATIONS - MARS PERSEVERANCE ROVER
And that’s what makes it so exciting to us as scientists is because we get to put our thinking caps on and really try to solve this puzzle.
https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/27972/meet-the-mars-samples-comet-geyser-sample-24/
China launches first of a new series of Yaogan reconnaissance satellites
April 3, 2024
HELSINKI — China launched its first Yaogan-42 satellite late Tuesday, adding to the country’s growing military satellite reconnaissance capabilities.
A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 6:56 p.m. Eastern (2256 UTC) April 2. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success within the hour. CASC’s statement also revealed the previously unknown payload to be Yaogan-42 (01) (“remote sensing-42 (01)”).
The satellite was later tracked by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron (SDS) in a roughly 500-kilometer-altitude orbit inclined by 35 degrees.
Both Yaogan-42 (02) and its Long March 2D launcher were developed and provided by CASC’s Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST).
Neither CASC nor Chinese state media provided any details regarding the classified satellite. These statements omitted the usual general description of Yaogan satellites.
Some Yaogan satellites are described as being for purposes including land survey, crop yield estimation, environmental management, meteorological warning and forecasting, and disaster prevention and reduction. Uses of others include “electromagnetic environment detection and related technical tests.”
Outside observers assess Yaogan series satellites to be designated for military and civilian purposes.
The various series of Yaogan satellites are understood to include optical imaging, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellites. This combination provides high-resolution imagery and all-weather and all-day and night imagery, along with the collection of electronic signals from radar, communication systems and other electronic devices, with coverage of both land and sea.
The vast majority of Yaogan satellites operate in a series of low Earth and sun-synchronous orbits. Some groups of Yaogan satellites, such as Yaogan-31, could be analogous to U.S. Department of Defense Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) satellite triplets. Other groups, in orbits with inclinations of 35 degrees, ang spaced 60 or 120 degrees apart, provide near constant surveillance over areas of security concern close to China.
Additionally China launched the Yaogan-41 satellite towards geosynchronous orbit in late 2023. That satellite launched on a Long March 5, China’s largest operational rocket. The mission A used a new, elongated 18.5-meter-long, 5.2-meter-diameter payload fairing.
Tuesday’s launch was China’s 15th orbital mission of 2024. The country is aiming to launch around 100 times across 2024. Around 70 will be conducted by CASC, with China’s commercial launch service providers planning around 30 launches.
Commercial activity will include the new Tianlong-3 from Space Pioneer. The 71-meter-long rocket will be capable of lifting 17 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, or 14 tons to 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit, according to the firm. The rocket would become China’s second most capable rocket, behind the Long March 5. It is intended to have a reusable first stage in the future.
SAST plans to launch its new, 3.8-meter-diameter Long March 12, previously referred to as the “XLV,” during 2024.
https://spacenews.com/china-launches-first-of-a-new-series-of-yaogan-reconnaissance-satellites/