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China’s Space Pioneer pushes towards launch despite static-fire debacle
July 31, 2024
Chinese commercial launch firm Space Pioneer appears to be moving towards a first launch of its Tianlong-3 rocket despite a disastrous static-fire test in June.
Space Pioneer suffered a serious setback in its plans to debut the Tianlong-3 kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket later this year following a static-fire test anomaly June 30.
That test saw the first stage escape its test bench and climb into the sky before falling to the ground and exploding.
The explosion occurred on a mountainside but was perilously close to inhabited areas, leading to the event being filmed by bystanders.
The company was conducting its test as a buildup to an orbital launch of the Tianlong-3, which is benchmarked against the SpaceX Falcon 9.
The incident drew widespread attention and no little criticism within China. Space Pioneer initially released a short report on the incident the same day.
However, it did not apologize for the event until July 2. Meanwhile, Space Pioneer appears to be proceeding with its plans.
Chinese social media posts on July 30 showed a pathfinder article erected at an undisclosed location.
The test model will be used for integration testing, and procedures required for handling, transporting and erecting a flight rocket.
It is however unclear how Space Pioneer will be able to proceed from this point to an orbital launch attempt. Not only did the company lose its intended flight hardware, but may face regulatory hurdles.
A July 4 post from state media Xinhua on the incident noted that, “the process of climbing to the top of the science and technology industry is not a smooth journey.
It is inevitable that there will be setbacks or even failures.” However, a full health check of the commercial sector and assessment and approval processes were mooted.
China opened its space sector to private capital in late 2014 and now boasts around 20 companies focused on launch.
Space Pioneer notably became the first Chinese commercial launch company to reach orbit with a liquid propellant rocket with its Tianlong-2 in 2023.
It so far remains unclear if the Space Pioneer incident will significantly slow the company or its competitors.
Earlier this year China’s central government designated commercial space as a key industry for support.
Reusable medium-lift launchers are also needed to deploy China’s planned low Earth orbit communications megaconstellations.
Competitors Landspace and Deep Blue Aerospace are understood to be preparing for their next vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) tests.
These will be for their respective Zhuque-3 and Nebula-1 orbital rockets.
https://spacenews.com/chinas-space-pioneer-pushes-towards-launch-despite-static-fire-debacle/
CACI secures $450 million contract to support U.S. Space Command’s navigation warfare center
July 31, 2024
CACI International, a professional services and information technology company, has secured a 10-year contract worth up to $450 million to support the Joint Navigation Warfare Center (JNWC), the company announced July 31.
The JNWC, a subordinate organization of U.S. Space Command’s Combined Force Space Component Command, serves as the Department of Defense’s center of excellence for navigation warfare.
It supports U.S. Space Command and plays a vital role in maintaining positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) superiority for the DoD and its partners.
Under the contract, CACI will assist combatant commanders in enhancing their ability to operate in PNT-disrupted, denied and degraded areas.
This includes operational field assessments, war gaming scenarios, and modeling and simulating threats.
“CACI’s experts understand multi-domain positioning, navigation and timing threats and advise combatant and joint force commanders on how to swiftly respond to navigational warfare threats and operational requirements,” said John Mengucci, CACI’s president and chief executive officer.
The JNWC, established in 2004, provides 24/7 operational support to warfighters through reachback capabilities and deployable teams.
These teams offer expertise in planning and conducting navigational warfare operations across various domains, including space, electronic warfare, cyberspace, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations.
Navigational warfare involves deliberate defensive and offensive actions to ensure PNT superiority, which is critical for modern military operations.
The JNWC works to identify vulnerabilities, develop mitigation strategies, and coordinate navigational warfare efforts across the Department of Defense, combatant commands, military services, interagency partners and allies.
https://spacenews.com/caci-secures-450-million-contract-to-support-u-s-space-commands-navigation-warfare-center/
So blue
Dalton emphasizes DAF priorities, need to modernize, on-time budgets
July 30, 2024
Under Secretary of the Air Force Melissa Dalton reasserted July 29 during an appearance at the Brookings Institution the Air Force and Space Force’s priorities, including the need to modernize and move “holistically” in reshaping the services to meet global challenges.
Dalton touched on those and other topics at some depth as well as the need for Congress to approve a budget on-time, in a wide-ranging discussion at the influential think tank.
That cohesion, she suggested, is one reason the Air Force and Space Force have been successful in reshaping their policies, practices and hardware to confront new, more potent challenges after decades focusing on the War on Terror.
“From the organize, train and equip perspective, it really is remarkable how much progress has been made in the last couple of years to drive those changes through … although there’s still considerable work to come,” she said.
Dalton’s hour-long “fireside chat” session at Brookings was arguably her most high-profile public appearance since May 29 when she formally became the department’s second-ranking civilian leader.
The conversation touched on topics that included the department’s on-going efforts announced in February to reorganize itself known internally as “Reoptimizing for Great Power Competition” and a related effort focusing on seven specific “Operational Imperatives.”
Both efforts are broad and ambitious and designed to make the Air Force and Space Force better able to confront China.
Dalton was also asked about policies related to “people,” specifically readiness, recruiting and overall morale across the force.
“We have to get the people portion right in order to meet any of our operational objectives. That really is job No. 1,” she said.
“There is a sense we need to keep driving forward, to modernize capabilities for our Airmen and Guardians but that mindset shift (toward focusing on Great Power Competition) is already taking hold.”
Other questions focused on the Indo-Pacific and how the services are adjusting to vast distances involved along with China’s evolving capabilities in the region.
Dalton noted that the Air Force continues refining – and expanding – its focus on agile combat employment, or ACE, which is anchored in more nimble, self-sufficient units rather than large, stand-alone bases.
She also highlighted the role space plays in the effort and how those strands are being braided together.
The longest, and most detailed, conversations, however, focused on budget and “resources” and modernizing the ground leg of the nuclear triad.
On budgets, Dalton noted the on-going GPC efforts are designed to go into place with minimal new funding since many are organizational adjustments and new approaches to training and developing Airmen and Guardians.
Still, she said, pressure remains on funding necessary for modernization efforts. “We are working with Congress to advocate for our priorities.
And they have in certain areas allowed us to divest certain legacy platforms, such as the A-10. That helps us recoup those dollars to invest in modernization priorities,” she said.
“We are faced with a choice of having an obsolete force that is not going to be able to be competitive with PRC for the long haul.
To be clear, we’re ready to deter and prevail in today’s security environment but have to increase our resourcing in order to maintain our competitive advantage,” she said.
Dalton also emphasized the importance of Congress delivering the funding on time. Failing to have budgets approved and in place by the Oct. 1 start of each fiscal year is critical.
That deadline has rarely been met in recent years which means the department (as well as most of the federal government) operates under old budgets and priorities that can delay or block new hardware and policies needed to best defend the nation.
Those delays, she said, “Cede the time to be able to keep pace with the PRC challenge that cannot be bought back.”
On nuclear modernization, Dalton stressed the importance of the Sentinel program to replace and upgrade the 1970s-era Minuteman III land-based intercontinental ballistic missile.
“The reality is, because of our focus over the last 30 years on counter terrorism, counter insurgency in the Middle East and Afghanistan, we have unfortunately mortgaged our investment in nuclear modernization.
We can’t afford to do that any longer,” she said.
“Our nuclear triad, while capable and effective today, when you look out decades to come will it be in a position to be able to provide effective nuclear deterrent?
The answer is no,” she said, adding that while the Sentinel program is complex and costly, the nuclear triad enjoys “strong bipartisan consensus.”
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3855530/dalton-emphasizes-daf-priorities-need-to-modernize-on-time-budgets/
Kendall delivers LCID 2024 keynote, urges 'go faster'
July 31, 2024
“The strategic environment we're in today is the toughest that I've ever seen,” expressed Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall during his keynote address to the Life Cycle Industry Days crowd, July 30, in Dayton.
During his introduction, it was noted that Kendall has worked in government for 50 years.
This helped make his opening statement about the current military environment even more powerful.
Overarching topics of Kendall’s address included:
Engineering management and defense acquisition
Space security, with progress made and challenges ahead
Developing new aircraft and air defense systems
USAF modernization, budget allocations and managing sustainment costs
Optimizing USAF resources – especially personnel
Partnerships with allies and industry partners
Kendall discussed the Department of the Air Force's approach to modernization, including the stand-up of the Integrated Development Office and Air Force Information Dominance Systems Center; the importance of staying ahead of the curve with technology and innovation; and the need to reorient the military to address Great Power Competition.
Additionally, Kendall emphasized the importance of modernizing the nuclear force and staying competitive in the face of evolving threats.
Opting to talk more casually and eschewing his scripted remarks, Kendall gave an overview of the progress on his Operational Imperatives, including GPC.
Speed is always top of his mind, noting “… we'd like to go faster. We'd like to get a wider spectrum of capabilities out there.”
Kendall also said he made one of his best personnel decisions ever in hiring Brig. Gen. Luke Cropsey as Air Force integrating program executive officer for Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management.
Cropsey is building integrated capabilities for the Air Force and Space Force with the goal of connecting joint programs and international partners.
Cropsey is well known to the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center family as he previously served as director of the Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate.
Kendall spent a few minutes addressing the challenges surrounding technology. He noted the Air Force has too much “tech debt” or reliance on obsolete technology.
“It’s no mystery [our] information systems are being attacked,” Kendall said. “Information systems are possible vulnerabilities that can be tapped and it's no mystery that they're being attacked. It's no mystery that cyber attackers are beefing up their techniques.”
Pivoting to uniformed and civilian Airmen, Kendall spent time emphasizing the importance of creating a competitive ecosystem, with a focus on operational problem-solving and integration across different organizations beyond just those in the U.S. Air Force. Achieving those goals will take human capital investment.
Before taking a few questions from the audience, Kendall emphasized the importance of increased funding for the Space Force, noting the newest military branch requires transformation to keep up with pacing challenges.
“If you are targeted in space, you're not going to survive,” Kendall explained. “And we have got to do something about that.
And if we can't target from space, we will not be successful. It's as simple as that,” Kendall said.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3856205/kendall-delivers-lcid-2024-keynote-urges-go-faster/
UFO-like clouds: an interesting natural phenomenon was spotted in the sky over Ukraine.
20:29 , 31 July 2024
A rare natural phenomenon has been spotted in the sky over Ukraine. Clouds that look very similar to UFOs are called lenticular or lenticular.
This phenomenon was filmed and posted on Facebook by mountain rescuer Vasyl Fitsak in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. According to the man, the natural phenomenon was filmed in the village of Osmoloda, located in the Gorgany massif.
Lenticular or lenticular clouds form on the crests of airwaves. They are most common in areas with strong winds and high mountains.
Usually, lenticular clouds appear on the leeward side of mountain ranges, and sometimes behind individual peaks, at an altitude of 2 to 15 km.
In a comment to UNIAN, Nataliia Ptukha, a forecaster at the Ukrainian Weather Center, said that the video posted by Fitsak does show clouds that somewhat resemble lenticular clouds, although this is not quite a classic version of this type of cloud. "There is a certain nature of such a lenticular cloud in this video," she confirmed.
"A characteristic feature of these clouds is that they do not move, no matter how strong the wind is, but hang in the air like a UFO.
And they can hang in one place for hours.
According to the forecaster, these clouds look motionless, as if frozen in time. "They stabilize in one place and, accordingly, appear when intense wind flows flow around an obstacle.
Most often, it is a mountain range, a mountain, a plateau," explained Ptukha. The expert also noted that the appearance of such clouds may indicate the approach of an atmospheric front.
"Right now, we have such intense air flows from the northern latitudes over Ukraine, an atmospheric front is passing through.
So, of course, such clouds can form. But not in such classic and large-scale manifestations, as is more typical for them," said Nataliia Ptukha.
The Ukrhydrometeorologist emphasized that lenticular clouds are a rare phenomenon, and only a few people are lucky enough to see them.
"But we're not talking about the small ones like in the video – not everyone may pay attention to them.
But the large-scale ones that hover over the peaks, the classic, large lenticular clouds, are rarely seen here," Ptukha said.
Interestingly, airplane pilots try to stay away from lenticular clouds to avoid turbulence.
Hang-gliders, on the other hand, purposefully fly into them to catch the airflow for several kilometers.
Some people believe that lenticular clouds form in places of special strength, where there are changes in gravity (the force lines of the Earth's magnetic field) and a powerful biomagnetic flux.
It is these changes and the flux that, they say, swirl air vapors and form these special highly cumulus clouds.
https://uazmi.com/news/post/668f01baa1cf7d4239cd3dfe9a11419e