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U.S. Department of State Open House at NASA Headquarters
APR 30, 2024
This event was part of Space Diplomacy Week, focused on deepening bilateral relationships, specifically how international partnerships are strengthened by space exploration.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/u-s-department-of-state-open-house-at-nasa-headquarters/
NASA Sets Coverage for Boeing Starliner’s First Crewed Launch, Docking
updated May 1, 2024
NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, which will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the International Space Station.
Launch of the ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket and Boeing Starliner spacecraft is targeted for 10:34 p.m. EDT Monday, May 6, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The flight test will carry Wilmore and Williams to the space station for about a week to test the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems before NASA certifies the transportation system for rotational missions to the orbiting laboratory for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
Starliner will dock to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 12:48 a.m., Wednesday, May 8.
The deadline for media accreditation for in-person coverage of this launch has passed. The agency’s media credentialing policy is available online. For questions about media accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.
NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
Wednesday, May 1
1:30 p.m. – Virtual news conference at Kennedy with the flight test astronauts:
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore
NASA astronaut Suni Williams
Coverage of the virtual news conference will stream live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.
cont.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-coverage-for-boeing-starliners-first-crewed-launch-docking/
NASA balloons head North of Arctic circle for long-duration flights
May 1, 2024
NASA is set to begin launch operations mid-May for the 2024 Sweden Long-Duration Scientific Balloon Campaign, according to the official website of the organization.
Four stadium-sized, scientific balloons carrying science missions and technology demonstrations are scheduled to lift off from Swedish Space Corporation’s Esrange Space Center, situated north of the Arctic Circle near Kiruna, Sweden. The campaign will continue through early July.
“NASA’s Balloon Program is excited to conduct our long-duration balloon campaign from Sweden this year,” said Andrew Hamilton, acting director of NASA’s Balloon Program Office. “Our partnership with the Swedish Space Corporation is valuable to NASA and the scientific community by allowing us to use their high-quality facilities at Esrange.”
Esrange, located in a vast unpopulated area in the northernmost part of Sweden, is an ideal location for the campaign. This area in Sweden’s polar region experiences constant daylight during summer. NASA’s zero-pressure balloons, used during the campaign, typically experience gas loss during the warming and cooling of the day to night cycle. However, they can perform long-duration flights in the constant sunlight of a polar region. “The location of the launch range and the stratospheric winds allow for excellent flight conditions to gather many days of scientific data as the balloons traverse from Sweden to northern Canada,” said Hamilton.
Four primary missions on deck for the Sweden campaign include:
HELIX (High-Energy Light Isotope eXperiment): A balloon-borne experiment that features a powerful superconducting magnet designed to measure the flux of high-energy cosmic ray isotopes to energies that have not been explored. The measurements will help determine the age of cosmic rays in our galaxy.
BOOMS (Balloon Observation of Microburst Scales): A high-resolution imager of X-rays from energetic electron microbursts that appear in the polar atmosphere. The mission will fly on a 60 million cubic feet balloon, a test flight set to qualify the balloon for reaching altitudes greater than 150,000 feet, which is higher than NASA’s current stratospheric inventory.
SUNRISE-III: A solar observatory that takes high-resolution imaging and spectro-polarimetry of layers of the Sun called the solar photosphere and chromosphere, and active regions to measure magnetic field, temperature, and velocities with high height temporal resolution.
XL-Calibur: A telescope that will observe a sample of galactic black hole and neutron star sources to gain new insight on how these objects accelerate electrons and emit X-rays.
Piggyback missions, or smaller payloads, sharing a ride on the XL-Calibur balloon flight include:
IRCSP (Infrared Channeled Spectro-Polarimeter): A technology development mission for high-altitude spectro-polarimetric measurements of cloud tops to help improve measurements of the size and shape of ice particles, which are crucial in understanding weather and improving climate models.
WALRUSS (Wallops Atmospheric Light Radiation and Ultraviolet Spectrum Sensor): A technology development mission for a sensor package capable of measuring the total ultraviolet (UV) − split among UVA, UVB, and UVC wavelengths ¬− and ozone concentration.
https://azertag.az/en/xeber/nasa_balloons_head_north_of_arctic_circle_for_long_duration_flights-2981884
Sun unleashes near X-class solar flare: M9.5 eruption sparks radio blackouts across the Pacific
May 1, 2024
Last night (April 30), the sun released an extremely powerful solar flare triggering widespread radio blackouts across the Pacific region. The flare peaked at 7:46 p.m. EDT (2346 GMT) and ended shortly after at 7:58 p.m. EDT (2358).
Solar flares are eruptions from the sun's surface that emit intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation. They are created when magnetic energy builds up in the solar atmosphere and is released. Solar flares are categorized by size into lettered groups, with X-class being the most powerful. Then there are M-class flares that are 10 times less powerful than X-class flares, followed by C-class flares which are 10 times weaker than M-class flares, B-class are 10 times weaker than C-class flares and finally, A-class flares which are 10 times weaker than B-class flares and have no noticeable consequences on Earth.
Within each class, numbers from 1-10 (and beyond for X-class flares) describe a flare's relative strength. The recent April 30 flare clocked in at M9.53, according to Spaceweatherlive.com, measured by NASA's GOES-16 satellite, which puts it just a fraction below an X-class solar flare.
Shortwave radio blackouts like the one witnessed over the Pacific are common shortly after powerful solar flare eruptions due to the strong pulse of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation emitted during the event. The radiation travels toward Earth at the speed of light and ionizes the top of Earth's atmosphere when it reaches us.
This ionization causes a higher-density environment that the high-frequency shortwave radio signals must attempt to navigate through to support communication over long distances. The radio waves that interact with electrons in the ionized layers lose energy due to more frequent collisions, and this can lead to radio signals becoming degraded or completely absorbed according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.
Radiation from the April 30 solar flare affected those on the sunlit portion of Earth at the time of the eruption, the Pacific regions. "Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal below 20 MHz for as much as 30 minutes after the flare's peak," according to Spaceweather.com.
Solar activity is ramping up as we approach solar maximum, the peak of solar activity during the sun's approximately 11-year solar cycle, indicated by the frequency of sunspots.
Despite the large number of sunspots currently visible on the sun's surface, our star has been relatively quiet in recent weeks. But not anymore.
The near X-class solar flare erupted from the sunspot region AR3654, the most powerful eruption from this region yet.
"It is always exciting when a sunspot region lives up to its potential. AR3654 has just done that." solar scientist Alex Young posted on X.
"Despite high sunspot numbers for the last couple of weeks, tonight's near X-class #SolarFlare is the first decent-sized flare in some time! When and where will the next X-class event come from?" solar astrophysicist Ryan French posted on X.
Solar scientists are keeping a watchful eye on the sun as it approaches solar maximum because solar activity can impact our lives on Earth.
Powerful flares can significantly affect spacecraft, satellites and ground-based technologies, traveling at the speed of light, and they don't give a lot of notice before striking. That's why numerous organizations — including NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) — are monitoring the sun closely. These organizations can send out warnings to technology and infrastructure sectors vulnerable to solar flare activity so that appropriate precautions can be taken in the event of potentially harmful space weather.
"We can't ignore space weather, but we can take appropriate measures to protect ourselves," NASA says.
But there is no need to worry; so-called "killer flares" do not exist and although solar flares have the potential to significantly disrupt the technological world, they don't contain enough energy to do any lasting damage to Earth itself.
"Even at their worst, the sun's flares are not physically capable of destroying Earth," NASA says.
https://www.space.com/near-x-class-solar-flare-april-30-2024-video
Smartless | 3 Presidents
On our first triple-guest podisode, we let our pal President Biden bring along two friends, Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Let’s get a little less-SmartLess together… on an all new SmartLess.
This episode was recorded on March 28th, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpp1eabiEOo
Astronomers close in on the mystery of the erupting Orion star system
May 1, 2024
Astronomers have puzzled for 88 years about how a pair of binary stars have continued to erupt over the course of a century, but it seems the mystery has finally been solved.
The double star system FU Orionis (FU Ori), located around 1,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Orion, first stunned astronomers in 1936 when it suddenly increased in brightness by around 1,000 times. This type of explosive brightening was expected from old dying stars, but the stars of FU Ori are just an estimated 2 million years old, mere infants in cosmic terms and compared to our middle-aged 4.6 billion-year-old star, the sun.
Now, a team of researchers has used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a cluster of 66 radio telescopes located in Northern Chile, to determine why and how this happens.
The discovery of FU Ori's outburst led to the classification of an entirely new type of star, FUor stars, which brighten suddenly and then fade over the course of many years. Scientists have found this explosive brightening is the result of FUors stealing energy from their surroundings via the same process that helps stars and planets form: The gravitational accretion of material.
"FU Ori has been devouring material for almost 100 years to keep its eruption going. We have finally found an answer to how these young outbursting stars replenish their mass," Antonio Hales, team leader and scientist with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) said in (videoa statement. "For the first time, we have direct observational evidence of the material fueling the eruptions.
"We have been studying FU Orionis since ALMA's first observations in 2012. It's fascinating to finally have answers."
The team's "smoking gun" is a tendril of material, mostly carbon monoxide, that is falling on the stars FU Ori. While this thin stream of gas is currently feeding the stars, it isn't substantial enough to account for 100 years of eruptions and brightening from this system.
Thus, the team theorizes that what they see today with ALMA is the remnants of a much larger supply of matter that once fell into this young star system.
"It is possible that the interaction with a bigger stream of gas in the past caused the system to become unstable and trigger the brightness increase," Hales continued.
To see different emissions from this star system and to detect mass flowing into it the team observed FU Ori with several different configurations of the 66 positionable radio antennas in the Atacama Desert that comprise ALMA. They also used numerical models to simulate the flow of gas to these erupting infant stars.
"We compared the shape and speed of the observed structure to that expected from a trail of infalling gas, and the numbers made sense," said team member Aashish Gupta, a Ph.D. candidate at European Southern Observatory (ESO) who devised how to model the stream of matter feeding FU Ori.
In addition to spotting the tendril of matter flowing into FU Ori, the team also saw an outflow of slowing-moving carbon monoxide passing from FU Ori. This gas doesn't seem to be associated with a recent outburst from the system.
The outflow seems to resemble other outflows that have been associated with protostars, infant stars that haven't yet gathered enough mass from their surroundings to trigger the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in their cores, the process that defines a main sequence star.
"By understanding how these peculiar FUor stars are made, we're confirming what we know about how different stars and planets form. We believe that all stars undergo outburst events," Hales concluded. "These outbursts are important because they affect the chemical composition of the accretion discs around nascent stars and the planets they eventually form."
https://www.space.com/orion-erupting-star-system-mystery-alma
The highest observatory on Earth sits atop Chile's Andes Mountains — and it's finally open
April 30, 2024
A new telescope billed as the world's highest astronomical site is officially open for business.
The Japanese University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory, or TAO, which was first conceptualized 26 years ago to study the evolution of galaxies and exoplanets, is perched on top of a tall mountain in the Chilean Andes at 5,640 meters (18,500 feet) above sea level. The facility's altitude surpasses even the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, which is at an elevation of 5,050 meters (16,570 feet).
TAO is located on the summit of Atacama's Cerro Chajnantor mountain, whose name means "place of departure" in the now-extinct Kunza language of the indigenous Likan Antai community. The region's high altitude, sparse atmosphere and perennially arid climate is deadly to humans, but makes an excellent spot for infrared telescopes like TAO as their observational accuracies rely on low moisture levels, which render Earth's atmosphere transparent in infrared wavelengths.
Constructing the telescope on the summit of Mt. Chajnantor "was an incredible challenge, not just technically, but politically too," Yuzuru Yoshii, a professor at the University of Tokyo in Japan who spearheaded TAO since 1998, said in a statement.
"I have liaised with Indigenous peoples to ensure their rights and views are considered, the Chilean government to secure permission, local universities for technical collaboration, and even the Chilean Health Ministry to make sure people can work at that altitude in a safe manner."
"Thanks to all involved, research I've only ever dreamed about can soon become a reality, and I couldn't be happier," he added.
TAO's 6.5-meter telescope consists of two science instruments designed to observe the universe in infrared, which is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than visible light but shorter than microwaves.
One of the instruments, named SWIMS, will image galaxies from the very early universe to understand how they coalesced out of pristine dust and gas, a process whose specifics remain murky despite decades of research.
The second, named MIMIZUKU, will aid the overarching science goal by studying primordial disks of dust within which stars and galaxies are known to form, according to the mission plan.
"The better astronomical observations of the real thing can be, the more accurately we can reproduce what we see with our experiments on Earth," Riko Senoo, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo and a TAO researcher, said in the statement.
"I hope the next generation of astronomers use TAO and other ground-based and space–based telescopes to make unexpected discoveries that challenge our current understanding and explain the unexplained," added Masahiro Konishi, a research associate at the University of Tokyo.
Before the newly opened telescope was built, Yoshii and his colleagues also assembled and operated a 1-meter telescope on the mountaintop in 2009. Dubbed miniTAO, the tiny telescope imaged the center of the Milky Way, our home galaxy. Two years later, miniTAO received the Guinness World Record for the highest astronomical observatory on Earth.
Although the observatory was being discussed for the past 26 years, on-site work began only in 2006 when the first access road to Mt. Chajnantor's summit was paved and a weather monitor installed soon after.
Prior to construction of the telescope, astronomers and members of the local community, which considers Mt. Chajnantor sacred, purified the construction site and held a "ground-breaking ceremony for the purpose of praising God's forgiveness, safety of the construction and success of the project," according to a previous news release by the project team.
https://www.space.com/worlds-highest-observatory-tao-university-of-tokyo-atacama-opens
Members of the 45th Civil Engineer Squadron compete in Readiness Challenge X
April 30, 2024
Members of the 45th Civil Engineer Squadron from Patrick Space Force Base competed against 11 teams of civil engineers from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and international allies, during Readiness Challenge X, from April 21-26 at Tyndall Air Force Base. The annual competition is designed to test the teams’ ability to complete tasks that could arise while setting up and maintaining a base in disputed, deteriorated, and operationally limited environments.
The competition consisted of multiple events over six days, with participants constructing and living in a simulated deployment environment for the entire duration.
Participants from the 45th CES were part of the Coalition Team, led by Capt. Kait Barry, 13th Space Warning Squadron base civil engineer.
“Training like this is paramount in the time of the Great Power Competition” Barry said. “This type of training is exactly what we need to be able to demonstrate to those watching that we’re ready, we’re here for the fight.”
The teams took part in timed and scored competitions including:
Runway construction and repair
Heavy machinery operation
Shelter construction
Firefighting operations
Water infrastructure setup
Electrical repair
Power production
Explosive ordnance disposal
Chemical, biological radiological and nuclear exercises
Completing the events allowed the teams to demonstrate the knowledge and skill required in the scope of their usual duties, as well as giving them hands-on training with jobs and equipment that they may not have encountered before.
“This competition allows us to hone the skills that we don’t get the opportunity to practice day in and day out at our home stations,” Barry said.
The fourth day of competition featured an exercise where teams had to adapt to working during staged chemical attacks. They had to perform all of the daily tasks assigned to them, but with the added difficulty of doing so in a gas mask and layers of protective clothing.
“The Readiness Challenge is extremely relevant training,” Barry said. “We’re aware of the capabilities our adversaries have, and this exercise functions directly to demonstrate our own abilities, as well.”
Airmen were also able to observe the other teams during Readiness Challenge X in order to gain insight and study the different approaches teams took towards completing the same task. By gathering together in this collective training environment, teams are able to reoptimize their operating procedures.
This year, the 45th CES participants were not working solely alongside other American Airmen. Their team, the Coalition Team, was made of Airmen from U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force bases as well as civil engineers from the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“Joint training is essential,” Barry said. “Being able to work and communicate with our coalition partners brings us together and makes us all stronger.”
The RCAF also valued the chance to work together.
“We can expect the Canadian military to be interoperating with American forces in deployed environments and international situations,” said Royal Canadian Air Force Capt. Adam Johnson, 8 Mission Support Squadron fire chief. “This training is absolutely critical for us as Canadians to learn how we can best work with Americans, so that we’re better prepared when the challenge comes.”
The competition was capped off with an award ceremony on the sixth day. The team from Air Force Global Strike Command had the highest score over six days of performance and secured the win.
“The support among the team, specifically between the Canadian members and the U.S. Air Force, has been fantastic,” Barry said. “Their eagerness to learn and help each other wherever they can, that’s all I can ask for — I’m really proud of them.”
The 45th CES’ team may not have placed first in the challenge, but the members did not come away from the competition empty handed. The team will bring the knowledge and experience that was acquired during Readiness Challenge X with them back to PSFB and wherever the Great Power Competition takes them.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3759757/members-of-the-45th-civil-engineer-squadron-compete-in-readiness-challenge-x/
https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3761181/usspacecom-leaders-travel-to-indo-pacific/
USSPACECOM leaders travel to Indo-Pacific
May 1, 2024
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, and Chief Master Sgt. Jacob Simmons, USSPACECOM command senior enlisted leader, embarked upon their first international trip as a combatant command team to the U.S. Indo-Pacific area of responsibility April 18-28.
“It is a privilege to be here to represent the women and men who work tirelessly to fulfill our moral obligation of providing global space capabilities to the Joint Force, our nation, and our alliance partners, and to discuss ways we can expand our cooperation and contributions to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Whiting said. “Like USINDOPACOM, we are seriously focused on our pacing challenge, the People’s Republic of China. And we find that when we operate in a unified fashion with our allies and partners, that builds deterrence and ensures that there will never be a day without space for our militaries and for our national populations.”
The first stop of the multi-day trip included meetings in Hawaii where Whiting met with the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Navy Adm. John C. Aquilino, military service component commanders, and USSPACECOM’s Joint Integrated Space Team. Discussions focused on multidomain threats posed by the PRC, concerns with increasing cooperation between competitor nations including the PRC, Russia, Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as well as opportunities for greater Joint Force and partner nation integration.
“The People’s Republic of China is moving at breathtaking speed in space, and they are rapidly developing a range of counter-space weapons to hold at risk our space capabilities, but they’re also using space to make their terrestrial forces more precise, more lethal, and more far-ranging,” Whiting said. “As we have seen with the events in the European and Central Command theater of operations, the value of space is just foundational to all that we do in the military arena, and so we must protect and defend our space capabilities.”
While in Hawaii, Simmons participated in a first-of-its-kind subject matter exchange with 30 senior enlisted leaders from 21 nations at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies. The exchange was initiated in 2023 and developed to enhance regional professionalism across military forces.
“Space is not just a supporting domain, it’s a pivotal domain,” Simmons said, emphasizing the evolving challenges and opportunities that space presents. He spoke on integrating space capabilities with terrestrial military operations to ensure comprehensive defense readiness and the importance of collaboration among Indo-Pacific nations in promoting responsible behavior in space, ensuring a sustainable and secure environment for all.
Next Whiting and Simmons traveled to the Republic of Korea, where they met with the Commander of U.S. Forces Korea U.S. Army Gen. Paul LaCamera and his staff to explore ways of leveraging USSPACECOM’s expertise and capabilities to fortify the defensive posture on the peninsula.
LaCamera accompanied Whiting and Simmons to meetings with U.S. Ambassador to the ROK Philip S. Goldberg, Adm. Kim Myung-Soo, Chairman of the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior government and military officials to discuss opportunities to strengthen capabilities and systems for combined space operations. Whiting also highlighted the excellent work in the trilateral agreement between the United States, the ROK, and Japan to share missile warning information to provide integrated warning to national leaders, military forces and the population.
Whiting and team concluded their time on the peninsula visiting U.S. and ROK service members at Camp Humphreys and Osan Air Base, including an immersion with the U.S. Space Force’s 5th Space Warning Squadron, providing a tactical perspective of the integration of space and missile warning capabilities.
The USSPACECOM visit came on the heels of noteworthy alliance and trilateral engagements in Washington, D.C. mid-April, including the 24th Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue and the historic Trilateral Summit involving the U.S., Japan and Philippine forces, efforts which recommitted the nations to defending peace and security in the region and upholding ironclad alliance agreements.
Following the Republic of Korea, Whiting and Simmons continued to Japan, where they met with Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp, commander of U.S. Forces Japan, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and his staff to discuss the recent trilateral summit, but also the incredible progress Japan has made in the space domain and opportunities to further strengthen the ironclad Alliance.
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Additionally, Whiting and Simmons had exchanges with Director General Jun Kazeki, Japan’s National Space Policy Secretariat, Cabinet Office; the Japan Air Self Defense Force’s Space Operations Group Col. Kimitoshi Sugiyama and Warrant Officer Ueji Tadayoshi, SOG senior enlisted advisor. They were also hosted by Kenji Mikami, Executive Director, Quasi-Zenith Satellite System Strategy Office; and Tomonori Sato, President, Defense and Space Systems at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, to receive an update on the QZSS Hosted Payload, which is a pathfinding national security space cooperation initiative between the U.S. and Japan.
At the Ministry of Defense headquarters, Whiting and Simmons had office calls with Japan’s Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara; Japan Joint Staff Chairman Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida; and Japan Air and Self Defense Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura. Simmons also met with a number of senior enlisted advisors during his visit, to include Warrant Officers Osamu Kai, Hiroyasu Kochaku, Kosuke Watahiki, and Toshikya Araki. Throughout these engagements leaders committed to enhance bilateral cooperation, including space domain awareness and the importance of adhering to norms of responsible behavior. Whiting also took the opportunity to congratulate Japanese leaders on their recent inclusion into the Combined Space Operations Initiative, as well as the recent announcement of Japan’s participation in the Artemis program.
“While traveling to the region, it has been a great opportunity to discuss with our Japanese and Korean partners the importance of space to our shared alliance and importance of space to how we defend our nations.” Whiting said. “We do that through a number of means – through shared exercises and tabletop war games, through collaboration between operational units, and we look forward to expanding those as we move forward.”
Whiting and his staff concluded their trip at U.S. Army Garrison Kwajalein Atoll, which is composed of the two islands Kwajalein and Roi-Namur in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and home to the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Reagan Test Site and the Space Force’s Space Fence radar system.
Whiting and Simmons toured the island’s operational sensors which provide unique capabilities in support of national test and space missions. They also saw the recovery efforts which the Kwajalein Garrison, under the leadership of U.S. Army Col. Drew Morgan and Command Sgt. Maj. Ernest Miller, have undertaken to restore mission operations and base support infrastructure following a rogue wave event in late-January 2024.
“Kwajalein is one of the Army’s and Joint Force’s most remote locations, yet the innovative and dedicated Soldiers, civilians, contractors, and Navy Seabees assigned and attached to the garrison have done incredible work to protect lives, rebuild base services, and return their nationally-vital sensors to operations,” Whiting said. “It was a privilege to witness their outstanding work firsthand.”
U.S. Space Command, working with allies and partners, plans, executes, and integrates military spacepower into multi-domain global operations in order to deter aggression, defend national interests, and when necessary, defeat threats.
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