Saturday
Mar072009
Space War: Russia and US in Satellite Shoot-out?
Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 15:18
Related Post: Obama: Finding the Right Word for Russia
Experts, policy makers, and academics have been talking about hypothetical military combat in space for decades, particularly during the 1980s with the introduction of President Reagan's so-called "Star Wars" program to shoot down Soviet nuclear missiles. However, there's evidence to suggest that warfare in Earth's orbit is very quickly accelerating from merely hypothetical to a strategic reality.
This week Russian Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Valentin Popovkin revealed that his country has been developing Anti-Satellite weapons technology, particularly "basic, key elements" needed to shoot down a satellite in near earth orbit. Regarding similar programs by the Americans and Chinese, Popovkin said, "We can't sit back and quietly watch others doing...such work."
Of course the Russians would have to emulate any military program that both the US and China have, but this isn't your everyday imperial arms race. They think the US already shot down one of their satellites.
It's not unusual for the Russians to be suspicious about DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) projects, especially ones like Orbital Express that could eventually be used against them. But the real indicators of a US "shoot down" comes from the satellite's manufacturer, Iridium Satellite LLC, which could serve the dual purpose of both telecommunications provider and military intelligence asset.
Iridium Satellite started in the late 1990s as one of many companies competing in the burgeoning field of satellite telecommunications. However, due to technical issues and rampant mismanagement, Iridium filed for bankruptcy and seemed on the brink of disaster. That's when a private group of investors stepped in and bought Iridium and it's $6 billion in assets for the bargain basement price of $25 million. Almost simultaneously Iridium announced a $36 million, no-bid contract with the Department of Defense for providing satellite communications to some 20,000 users.
Who sits on the board of this once-broke, now uberprofitable company? None other than Alvin Krongard, better known as Buzzy, former Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under the disagraced George Tenet and board member of the private security contractor formerly known as Blackwater.
If I can find all of that on Google, what do you suppose the Russians know? No wonder they're developing their own military space technology.
Counter-Point: Dan Mosqueda isn't so sure the US shot down the satellite. Via Twitter, he says "This conjunction was a result of sloppy Russian space ops. An Iridium bird [satellite] isn't an Orbital Express bird, not even close in size. OE was launched via an Atlas V - HUGE launch vehicle. Iridiums were launched on smaller and completely different Delta-family launch vehicles. Last launch was back in 2002. The ASTRO is at 250 miles [from the earth's surface], Iridium at 450, and the Cosmos 2251 is at 490, but could have decayed a bit. So ASTRO is out of the picture."
Experts, policy makers, and academics have been talking about hypothetical military combat in space for decades, particularly during the 1980s with the introduction of President Reagan's so-called "Star Wars" program to shoot down Soviet nuclear missiles. However, there's evidence to suggest that warfare in Earth's orbit is very quickly accelerating from merely hypothetical to a strategic reality.This week Russian Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Valentin Popovkin revealed that his country has been developing Anti-Satellite weapons technology, particularly "basic, key elements" needed to shoot down a satellite in near earth orbit. Regarding similar programs by the Americans and Chinese, Popovkin said, "We can't sit back and quietly watch others doing...such work."
Of course the Russians would have to emulate any military program that both the US and China have, but this isn't your everyday imperial arms race. They think the US already shot down one of their satellites.
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Leonid Shershnev, a former head of Russia's military space intelligence, said in an interview published by the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper on Tuesday that the U.S. satellite involved in the [February 10, 2009 collision with a defunct Russian satellite] was used by the U.S. military as part of the "dual-purpose" Orbital Express research project, which began in 2007.
It's not unusual for the Russians to be suspicious about DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) projects, especially ones like Orbital Express that could eventually be used against them. But the real indicators of a US "shoot down" comes from the satellite's manufacturer, Iridium Satellite LLC, which could serve the dual purpose of both telecommunications provider and military intelligence asset.
Iridium Satellite started in the late 1990s as one of many companies competing in the burgeoning field of satellite telecommunications. However, due to technical issues and rampant mismanagement, Iridium filed for bankruptcy and seemed on the brink of disaster. That's when a private group of investors stepped in and bought Iridium and it's $6 billion in assets for the bargain basement price of $25 million. Almost simultaneously Iridium announced a $36 million, no-bid contract with the Department of Defense for providing satellite communications to some 20,000 users.
Who sits on the board of this once-broke, now uberprofitable company? None other than Alvin Krongard, better known as Buzzy, former Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under the disagraced George Tenet and board member of the private security contractor formerly known as Blackwater.
If I can find all of that on Google, what do you suppose the Russians know? No wonder they're developing their own military space technology.
Counter-Point: Dan Mosqueda isn't so sure the US shot down the satellite. Via Twitter, he says "This conjunction was a result of sloppy Russian space ops. An Iridium bird [satellite] isn't an Orbital Express bird, not even close in size. OE was launched via an Atlas V - HUGE launch vehicle. Iridiums were launched on smaller and completely different Delta-family launch vehicles. Last launch was back in 2002. The ASTRO is at 250 miles [from the earth's surface], Iridium at 450, and the Cosmos 2251 is at 490, but could have decayed a bit. So ASTRO is out of the picture."