low earth orbit

For the most part, orbital defense isn’t nearly as sexy an endeavor as its made out to be by the media. Protecting America’s large constellation of defense, intelligence and commercial satellites relied on for everything from navigation to communications, is largely an effort that can be undertaken from a desk here on earth — including […]

Ever since President Trump announced his intention to establish a Space Force, much of the popular sentiment has involved images of jetpack-laden space troops engaging in zero-G warfare in the black expanse above our heads. But the reality of the threats to America’s satellite. Even world-famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who has repeatedly spoken out […]

Earlier this week, a top U.S. State Department official addressed the United Nations at Geneva, using the opportunity to draw attention Russia’s military efforts in orbit, despite their ongoing media campaign aimed at discrediting the United States’ endeavor to mount a space-specific branch of its own. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and […]

The idea of space defense exploded into the public consciousness in recent months thanks in large part to President Donald Trump’s directive to establish a space-based branch of the military tasked with precisely that, but within the defense community, space has long been a concern. While the uninformed have levied debates about the militarization of […]

Last week, the private space firm Blue Origin conducted a successful test launch of their capsule and suborbital booster rocket called New Shepard. The successful test not only served as another notch in Blue Origin’s belt, but it also provided the opportunity to test and demonstrate their crew capsule escape system. Unlike Elon Musk’s space […]

For decades, American and Russian space adventurers have enjoyed a form of political isolation from the turbulent relationship at play between their national governments. Despite the sanctions, allegations, name calling and rhetoric, American Astronauts and Russian Cosmonauts have worked side by side in places like the International Space Station, placing their national priorities to the […]

Retired Marine Colonel Randy Bresnik cut his teeth as a test pilot for the F/A-18 Hornet program, before going on to serve combat tours in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Now, he’s an astronaut, and one of the few remaining with the experience necessary to give us the lowdown on how space food stacks up […]

The International Space Station has been in orbit around our planet since 1998, providing the human race with a (semi) permanent habitable space at the front door of the great beyond. That timeline offers an interesting bit of perspective — as you come to realize that America’s latest generation of enlisted warfighters, joining the service […]

Back in January, an uncharacteristically secretive SpaceX Falcon 9 launch that was meant to ferry a classified billion dollar satellite into orbit apparently went wrong. Now it appears the fault may have been on Northrop Grumman, the company that built the satellite. The payload, referred to as Zuma, failed to deploy properly once in orbit, […]

Appearing before a crowd at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, President Donald Trump reignited a seemingly dead call for a dedicated space-based branch of the military. Space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea,” Trump said. “We may even have a Space Force, develop another one, Space Force. […]

With SpaceX garnering so much attention with the recent launch of their new flag ship Falcon Heavy, the first operational rocket powerful enough to take passengers to the moon since the retirement of the Saturn V, it would seem that the world is once again looking toward the possibility of manned space flight with destinations […]

Last year, both the U.S. Congress and Senate seemed to hear the chorus of defense officials calling for an increased emphasis on the defense of America’s orbital infrastructure when they put together budget proposals for an increase in defense spending. Unfortunately, when the two budgets were reconciled into a single bill, both the plans for […]