NASA image captured July 12, 2011 - With his feet secured on a restraint on the space station remote manipulator system's robotic arm or Canadarm2, NASA astronaut Mike Fossum (frame center) holds the Robotics Refueling Mission payload, which was the focus of one of the primary chores accomplished on a six and a half hour spacewalk on July 12. The failed pump module is with DEXTRE on left side of the photo. NASA astronauts Fossum and Ron Garan performed the six-hour, 31-minute spacewalk, which represents the final scheduled extravehicular activity during shuttle missions. Among Atlantiss final contributions to the ISS is the Robotic Refueling Mission, developed at Goddard Space Flight Center. Atlantis brought this module to the International Space Station, where it will provide key support in maintaining future spacecrafts for years to come. STS-135 astronauts traveled to Goddard to complete special training for these robotics, a major component of the final shuttle mission. RRM is one of dozens of Goddard payloads to travel aboard orbiters into space throughout the 30-year flight history of the Shuttle Program. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASAs mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASAs accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agencys mission.

Mission Specialist Bruce McCandless II, is seen further away from the confines and safety of his ship than any previous astronaut has ever been. This space first was made possible by the Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU, a nitrogen jet propelled backpack. After a series of test maneuvers inside and above Challenger's payload bay, McCandless went "free-flying" to a distance of 320 feet away from the Orbiter. This stunning orbital panorama view shows McCandless out there amongst the black and blue of Earth and space. (02/12/1984)

The thin line of Earth's atmosphere and the setting sun are featured in this image photographed by a crew member on the International Space Station while space shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) remains docked with the station. 11/23/09

NASA image acquired July 19, 2011 - Silhouetted against the Earth, Atlantis flies into the rising Sun in this photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station on July 19, 2011. On July 20, the shuttle undocked from the station for the final time and began preparations to return home. During their 13 days in space, the shuttle astronauts supplied the International Space Station with a new logistics module, tested tools, technologies, and techniques to refuel satellites in space, and collected old equipment from the space station. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

From 220 miles above Earth, one of the Expedition 25 crew members on the International Space Station took this night time photo featuring the bright lights of Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt on the Mediterranean coast. The Nile River and its delta stand out clearly as well. On the horizon, the airglow of the atmosphere is seen across the Mediterranean. The Sinai Peninsula, at right, is outlined wit

STS-125 Mission Specialist Andrew Feustel positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis' remote manipulator system moves the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) during the mission's third session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as work continues to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo credit: NASA May 16, 2009

Expedition 35 Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy (pictured) and Tom Marshburn (out of frame) completed a spacewalk at 2:14 p.m. EDT May 11, 2013 to inspect and replace a pump controller box on the International Space Stations far port truss (P6) leaking ammonia coolant. The two NASA astronauts began the 5-hour, 30-minute spacewalk at 8:44 a.m. A leak of ammonia coolant from the area near or at the location of a Pump and Flow Control Subassembly was detected on Thursday, May 9, prompting engineers and flight controllers to begin plans to support the spacewalk. The device contains the mechanical systems that drive the cooling functions for the port truss.

A picturesque line of thunderstorms and numerous circular cloud patterns filled the view as the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 20 crew members looked out at the limb (blue line on the horizon) of the Earth. The region shown in the astronaut photograph (top image) includes an unstable, active atmosphere forming a large area of cumulonimbus clouds in various stages of development. The crew was looking west-southwest from the Amazon Basin, along the Rio Madeira toward Bolivia when the image was taken.

Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld is positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis' remote manipulator system and Andrew Feustel (top center), mission specialist, participate in the mission's fifth and final spacewalk.

Close views of Paul Richards during an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the International Space Station (ISS). View STS102-346-021 is a crew pick selection.

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Hyperspace Portal (Or Massive Black Hole...) Found In Deep Space (PICTURE)

Image Caption: RROxiTT lead roboticist Alex Janas stands with the Oxidizer Nozzle Tool as he examines the work site. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

[ Watch The Video: Teaming Up to Test the Future of Satellite Refueling ]

Dewayne Washington and Adrienne Alessandro, NASA

The Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO) at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., checked another critical milestone off their list with the completion of their Remote Robotic Oxidizer Transfer Test (RROxiTT) in February 2014.

This is the first time that anyone has tested this type of technology, and weve proven that it works. Its ready for the next step to flight, says Frank Cepollina, veteran leader of the five servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope and the associate director of SSCO.

RROxiTT gives NASA, and the satellite community at large, confidence that advanced satellite refueling and maintenance technologies arent a wild dream of the future, says Cepollina. Theyre being built and tested today and the capabilities that they can unlock can become a reality.

Since 2009, SSCO has been investigating human and robotic satellite servicing while developing the technologies necessary to bring on-orbit spacecraft inspection, repair, refueling, component replacement and assembly capabilities to space.

Taking lessons learned from the successful Robotic Refueling Mission, the SSCO team devised the ground-based RROxiTT to test how robots can transfer hazardous oxidizer, at flight-like pressures and flow rates, through the propellant valve and into the mock tank of a satellite.

While this capability could be applied to spacecraft in multiple orbits, SSCO focused RROxiTT specifically on technologies that could help satellites traveling the busy space highway of geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO.

Located about 22,000 miles above Earth, this orbital path is home to more than 400 satellites, many of which beam communications, television and weather data to customers worldwide.

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New Robotic Refueling Technologies Tested By NASA

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket currently is NASA's cargo hauler to the International Space Station, but Orbital Sciences is set for an April test flight of its Antares rocket

ORBITAL SCIENCES

The Falcon 9 rocket, which made its fifth successful flight on 1 March, has stolen the spotlight in the commercial space race. Built by SpaceX, a young company based in Hawthorne, California, the rocket has become NASAs choice for hauling cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). But it may soon have competition from a rocket that has kept a low profile (seeBattle of the rockets).

After years of delays, Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Virginia, has slated the first test flight of its Antares rocket for April. If that goes well, its second mission could carry an unmanned Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS within months. Theres no one main problem, no show-stopper, says Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski. In hindsight, this has just taken us longer to do than we thought it would.

Both companies have received hundreds of millions of dollars from NASAs Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. With the space shuttle retiring in 2011, the agency wanted alternatives to paying for ISS deliveries aboard the Russian Progress and Soyuz craft. NASA deliberately put two companies in competition with each other to keep prices down over the long run and to attract other customers. The government is the necessary anchor tenant for commercial cargo, but its not sufficient to build a new economic ecosystem, says Scott Hubbard, an aeronautics researcher at Stanford University in California and former director of NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

With 30 years of experience in making satellites and rockets, Orbital once seemed the safer bet. Instead of assembling its vehicles from scratch like SpaceX, Orbital uses parts made by companies with proven track records. The core of the first stage of Antares was designed and built by veterans KB Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash, both based in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Cygnuss sensors come from Mitsubishi Electric in Tokyo and its pressurized cargo module was built at a Thales Alenia Space plant in Turin, Italy. Orbital used more heritage technology, says Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASAs commercial crew and cargo program. That was less risky for us.

But the company did not enter COTS until 2008, two years after SpaceX. With the clock ticking, NASA allocated less money for Orbital and ordered a simpler ship. Unlike SpaceXs Dragon capsule, Cygnus cant carry sensitive biological experiments, such as those that grow protein crystals in microgravity. It burns up on re-entry, so it cant return samples to Earth. And it cant be modified to carry humans.

Image: Courtesy of Nature Magazine

Nor has it yet flown. Orbital chose to launch from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia; less crowded than Cape Canaveral in Florida, which hosts most NASA rocket launches, Wallops usually caters for smaller vehicles such as scientific balloons and sounding rockets. The facilitys Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport had to build a new launch pad for Antares, which took longer than expected. Originally scheduled for 2010, the demonstration launch slipped to 2012, and then to 2013, after Hurricane Sandy hit the spaceport last October.

Antares engines, built half a century ago for Russias Moon program and recently refurbished, have also proven finicky. A test on 13February was aborted when pressure anomalies were detected in one of the engines. A successful test on 22February means that Orbital can now proceed to a launch in April.

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Commercial Space Race Heats Up as Antares Creeps Up on Falcon 9 Rocket

NASA has successfully concluded a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots to transfer hazardous oxidizer a type of propellant into the tanks of satellites in space today.

Concurrently on the ground, NASA is incorporating results from this test and the Robotic Refueling Mission on the International Space Station to prepare for an upcoming ground-based test of a full-sized robotic servicer system that will perform tasks on a mock satellite client.

Collectively, these efforts are part of an ongoing and aggressive technology development campaign to equip robots and humans with the tools and capabilities needed for spacecraft maintenance and repair, the assembly of large space telescopes, and extended human exploration.

Technologies to Help Satellites That Help Earth

The Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., checked another critical milestone off their list with the completion of their Remote Robotic Oxidizer Transfer Test (RROxiTT) in February 2014.

"This is the first time that anyone has tested this type of technology, and we've proven that it works. It's ready for the next step to flight," says Frank Cepollina, veteran leader of the five servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope and the associate director of SSCO.

"RROxiTT gives NASA, and the satellite community at large, confidence that advanced satellite refueling and maintenance technologies aren't a wild dream of the future," says Cepollina. "They're being built and tested today and the capabilities that they can unlock can become a reality."

Since 2009, SSCO has been investigating human and robotic satellite servicing while developing the technologies necessary to bring on-orbit spacecraft inspection, repair, refueling, component replacement and assembly capabilities to space.

Taking lessons learned from the successful Robotic Refueling Mission, the SSCO team devised the ground-based RROxiTT to test how robots can transfer hazardous oxidizer, at flight-like pressures and flow rates, through the propellant valve and into the mock tank of a satellite.

While this capability could be applied to spacecraft in multiple orbits, SSCO focused RROxiTT specifically on technologies that could help satellites traveling the busy space highway of geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO.

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NASA tests new robotic refueling technologies

NASA | GPM Rocket Launch
A Japanese H-IIA rocket with the NASA-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory onboard, is seen lau...

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CLEOPATRA and some of her bands member #39;s training at the Euro space flight station
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Sony Super Bowl XXXVII ad Space Flight 2003 YouTube

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Image Caption: A sprite glows red (inset) in this image captured by astronauts on the International Space Station on April 30, 2012. Credit: Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center

April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Just as you might keep a spare tire in your car, or a spare filter for your air conditions, NASA keeps spares as well. These spare flight hardware units allow NASA to continue work without interruption in the event that something goes down for repair. These spare parts are kept even after the project ends, sometimes finding second lives in new areas.

A sophisticated piece of flight hardware, called a Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), was developed by researchers at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center and launched into space in 1997 as part of NASAs Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The sensor, used to detect and locate lightning over the tropical region of the globe, undertook a three year primary mission to return data that could be used to improve weather forecasts. LIS continues to operate aboard the TRMM satellite today.

Of course, the researchers responsible for building LIS in the 1990s built a spare unit as a precaution. That other unit is now being brought into play as well. The second LIS sensor is scheduled to launch aboard a Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) in February 2016. LIS will be mounted to the station for a two year baseline mission as part of a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP)-H5 science and technology development payload.

The LIS hardware was selected by NASA to take advantage of the ISSs high inclination, which will give the sensor the ability to look farther towards Earths poles than the original LIS aboard the TRMM satellite. The sensor will have many duties once installed, including monitoring global lightning for Earth science studies, providing cross-sensor calibration and validation with other space-borne instruments, and ground-based lightning networks. LIS will also supply real-time lightning data over data-sparse regions, such as oceans, to support operational weather forecasting and warning.

Only LIS globally detects all in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning what we call total lightning during both day and night, said Richard Blakeslee, LIS project scientist at Marshall. As previously demonstrated by the TRMM mission, better understanding lightning and its connections to weather and related phenomena can provide unique and affordable gap-filling information to a variety of science disciplines including weather, climate, atmospheric chemistry and lightning physics.

Without land-ocean bias, LIS measures the amount, rate and radiant energy of global lightning, providing storm-scale resolution, millisecond timing, and high, uniform-detection efficiency.

The LIS hardware consists of an optical imager enhanced to locate and detect lighting from thunderstorms within its 400-by-400-mile field-of-view. As it orbits Earth, the ISS travels more than 17,000 mph. This will allow LIS to observe a point on Earth, or a cloud, for almost 90 seconds each time it passes overhead. This viewing duration, despite its short length, is long enough to estimate the lightning-flashing rate of most storms.

More than 70 percent of all lightning occurs during daylight hours, making daytime detection the driving force for the technical design of LIS. Lightning, when seen from space, looks like a pool of light on top of a thundercloud. During the day, however, sunlight reflected off the cloud tops can completely mask the lightning signal. This makes it challenging to detect the lightning. LIS applies special techniques that take advantage of the differences in the behavior and physical characteristics between lightning and sunlight, however, allowing LIS to extract the lightning strikes from background illumination.

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When Lightning Strikes, Instruments On The Space Station Will See It

March 5, 2014

Image Caption: Pogue relaxes on the running board of the transfer van during a visit to the Skylab 4/Saturn 1B space vehicle at Pad B, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Credit: NASA

NASA

William Pogue, pilot on NASAs Skylab 4 mission in 1973-74, has died. He was 84 years old.

Skylab 4 was the third and final manned visit to the Skylab orbital workshop, launched Nov. 16, 1973, and concluded Feb. 8, 1974. At 84 days, 1 hour and 15 minutes, Skylab 4 was the longest manned space flight to that date.

Pogue was accompanied on the record setting 34.5-million-mile flight by Commander Gerald P. Carr and science-pilot Dr. Edward G. Gibson. They conducted dozens of experiments and science demonstrations during their 1,214 orbits of Earth, including extensive observations of the home planet as well as the suns solar processes. Pogue logged 13 hours and 31 minutes in two spacewalks outside the orbital workshop.

Pogue described the excitement of launch in a 2000 interview as part of Johnson Space Centers Oral History project.

I didnt think we were going to launch. You know, wed had so many problems. I was sitting there, and finally when we were at thirty seconds, I thought, well, maybe. Its a lot of noise.

Pogue said he thought he was pretty cool on liftoff, but a NASA doctor later told him his pulse jumped from 50 to 120. It was pretty exciting, he said.

Pogue was born Jan. 23, 1930, in Okemah, Okla. After graduating from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1951, Pogue enlisted in the Air Force, where he went on to fly combat missions in Korea. From 1955 to 1957, he was a member of the USAF Thunderbirds, the Air Forces elite flying team. Pogue eventually logged over 7,200 hours flying time in more than 50 types of aircraft, including more than 2,000 hours logged in space flight.

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Skylab 4 Mission Pilot William Pogue Has Died

The Hubble Space Telescope has caught a rapidly spinning neutron star in the act of gobbling up its partner, say NASA scientists.

A so-called "black widow" star with a tightly orbiting stellar partner has been caught in act of consuming its companion by a NASA space telescope, scientists say.

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The fast-spinning pulsar, known as PSRJ1311-3430 (J1311 for short), is part of a unique class of pulsars named for dangerous redback and black widow spiders that devour their cosmic mates. In time, the pulsar is expected to completely absorb its smaller companion star, a celestial partner that may have caused its characteristic quick spin. You can see avideo animation of the pulsar's deadly embrace here.

"The essential feature of black widow and redback binaries are that they place a normal but very low-mass star in close proximity to a millisecond pulsar, which has disastrous consequences for the star," Roger Romani, a member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology in California, said in a statement. [The Star Quiz: Test Your Stellar Smarts]

When a massive star explodes in a supernova, its leftover core can survive as a neutron star, an incredibly dense body that can pack the mass of the sun into a city-sized ball. Neutron stars that rotate a few thousand times per minute, sweeping a beam of radio, visible light, x-rays, and gamma rays like a light house are known aspulsars. Astronomers can detect the stream of emission when it points towards Earth in a brief pulse.

But some pulsars rotate at a dazzling speeds, turning on their axis at least once every ten milliseconds, or a few thousand times a minute. Known as millisecond pulsars, more than half of these fast-spinning stars have companions, while their slower cousins tend to appear in isolation. The high companion rates suggest to scientists that interactions with a second star can accelerate the spin of a normal pulsar.

In 2012, Romani was part of a team that used NASA'sFermi Gamma-ray Space Telescopeto characterize J1311 using only its gamma-ray emission. While Fermi frequently identifies gamma-ray sources, radio telescope follow-ups have been the key source of detection of the rapid pulsation that identifies the source as a millisecond pulsar, though slower pulsars are frequently identifiable by the telescope.

The gamma-ray detection is key because many of the sedate pulsars are quiet in the radio spectrum, where the millisecond pulsars are frequently identified, potentially allowing numerous radio-quiet millisecond pulsars to pass by unnoticed.

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Hubble spots 'black widow' pulsar devouring companion star

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

4-Mar-2014

Contact: Laura Niles Laura.E.Niles@nasa.gov 281-244-7069 NASA/Johnson Space Center

Keeping a spare on hand simply makes sense. Just as drivers keep spare tires on hand to replace a flat or blowout, NASA routinely maintains "spares," too. These flight hardware backups allow NASA to seamlessly continue work in the unlikely event something goes down for a repair. When projects end, these handy spares can sometimes find second lives in new areas for use.

Researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., developed a sophisticated piece of flight hardware called a Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) to detect and locate lightning over the tropical region of the globe. Launched into space in 1997 as part of NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the sensor undertook a three-year baseline mission, delivering data used to improve weather forecasts. It continues to operate successfully aboard the TRMM satellite today.

The team that created this hardware in the mid-1990s built a spare -- and now that second unit is stepping up to contribute, as well. The sensor is scheduled to launch on a Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) rocket to the International Space Station in February 2016. Once mounted to the station, it will serve a two-year baseline mission as part of a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP)-H5 science and technology development payload. STP-H5 is integrated and flown under the management and direction of the DoD's STP.

NASA selected the LIS spare hardware to fly to the space station in order to take advantage of the orbiting laboratory's high inclination. This vantage point gives the sensor the ability to "look" farther towards Earth's poles than the original LIS can aboard the TRMM satellite. Once installed, the sensor will monitor global lightning for Earth science studies, provide cross-sensor calibration and validation with other space-borne instruments, and ground-based lightning networks. LIS will also supply real-time lightning data over data-sparse regions, such as oceans, to support operational weather forecasting and warning.

"Only LIS globally detects all in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning -- what we call total lightning -- during both day and night," said Richard Blakeslee, LIS project scientist at Marshall. "As previously demonstrated by the TRMM mission, better understanding lightning and its connections to weather and related phenomena can provide unique and affordable gap-filling information to a variety of science disciplines including weather, climate, atmospheric chemistry and lightning physics."

LIS measures the amount, rate and radiant energy of global lightning, providing storm-scale resolution, millisecond timing, and high, uniform-detection efficiency -- and it does this without land-ocean bias.

The sensor consists of an optical imager enhanced to locate and detect lightning from thunderstorms within its 400-by-400-mile field-of-view on the Earth's surface. The station travels more than 17,000 mph as it orbits our planet, allowing the LIS to observe a point on the Earth, or a cloud, for almost 90 seconds as it passes overhead. Despite this brief viewing duration, it is long enough to estimate the lightning-flashing rate of most storms.

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Space Station sensor to capture 'striking' lightning data

Posted on: 5:42 pm, March 4, 2014, by Matt Kroschel, updated on: 10:46pm, March 4, 2014

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) Leaders at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center say President Obamas proposed 2015 budget will keep funding about the same as the previous year.

During a media briefing Tuesday Marshall Director Patrick Scheuermann said he was happy with the budget and what it means for the North Alabama NASA operation.

This is a good budget for Marshall Space Flight Center and it provides stability for our workforce, programs and projects, Scheuermann said.

Patrick Scheuermann (Photo: NASA)

Under the budget Marshall Space Flight Center will receive a$2.15 billion the share of the presidents $17.5 billion NASA budget.

BY THE NUMBERS:

$1.4 billion the amount the center will spend developing the heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System next year. Its also consistent with last year, Scheuermann said.

$193 million the amount budgeted for space operations at Marshall. The big item here is the Payload Operations Center where Marshall manages all science experiments aboard the International Space Station. Thats a 24/7/365 operation.

$41 million the amount budgeted for Marshalls technology work including its centennial challenges and similar programs.

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NASAs 2015 Budget Would Keep Staffing Levels Flat, Provide Stability

Engineering Icons: Mike Massimino on the Future of Space Flight
The second conversation in the Engineering Icons series featured Astronaut Mike Massimino BS #39;84. In this video, Massimino talks about the future of space fli...

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AFK Audio - Music - Space Flight(Excerpt)
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Shuttle: The Space Flight Simulator (PC,DOS) 1992 Virgin Games/Vector Grafix ltd,
Wikipedia link - http://adf.ly/3071562/shuttle-the-space-flight-simulator-1992- -- Mobygames link - http://www.mobygames.com/game/shuttle-the-space-flight-si...

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Shuttle: The Space Flight Simulator (PC,DOS) 1992 Virgin Games/Vector Grafix ltd, - Video

Russia and India have agreed to hold consultations on space cooperation and joint projects in this field, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday, February 26.

"We also discussed GLONASS and think there is an enormous potential for cooperation in this area and the joint use of space services in general," Rogozin, who is co-chair of the Russian-Indian inter-governmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation, said.

He noted that this year India would be celebrating the 30th anniversary of its first astronaut Rakesh Sharma's space flight accomplished in 1984.

"We have agreed to hold a series of consultations between our space agencies to engage our Indian partners in the plans and projects to be undertaken by the United Rocket and Space Corporation," Rogozin said.

He met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.

Source: Voice of Russia

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Russia, India to discuss space cooperation

The U.S. Air Force plans to launch two space surveillance spacecraft into high-altitude orbits later this year to monitor satellite traffic in the congested geosynchronous belt 22,300 miles above Earth, the head of Space Command has announced.

The previously classified program will help the Air Force track man-made orbiting objects in high-altitude orbits, a region populated by the military's strategic communications and early warning satellites.

The capabilities of existing space surveillance assets on the ground and in orbit a few hundred miles above Earth are limited in detecting satellite movements at higher altitudes, according to military officials.

Known as the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, the initiative was revealed Friday by Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, who described the system as a "neighborhood watch" for satellites. [Top 10 Space Weapons]

"GSSAP will produce a significant improvement in space object surveillance, not only for better collision avoidance but also for detecting threats," Shelton said in a speech at the Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. "GSSAP will bolster our ability to discern when adversaries attempt to avoid detection and to discover capabilities they may have which might be harmful to our critical assets at these higher altitudes."

The service published a fact sheet on the program in conjunction with Shelton's announcement.

According to the fact sheet, the surveillance project's primary contractor is Orbital Sciences Corp. The GSSAP program's budget and details of the satellites were not released.

The Air Force's Space Based Space Surveillance, or SBSS, satellite launched in 2010 with an optical telescope to peer at spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. But SBSS flies in low Earth orbit about 300 miles high, putting it thousands of miles away from its observational targets.

The GSSAP satellites will be much closer, but the Air Force has not said how close.

"As other nations show their commitment in investing in systems capable of harming our satellites, we are committed to investing in space surveillance assets like GSSAP that will directly enable safe operations, protect our spacecraft, and indirectly enable a range of decisive responses that will enable counterspace threats ineffective," Shelton said.

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Air Force General Reveals New Space Surveillance Program

CLEOPATRA and some of her bands member #39;s training at the euro space flight station adventure pt1
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CLEOPATRA and some of her bands member #39;s training at the Euro space flight station for a future
CLEOPATRA and some of her bands member #39;s training at the Euro space flight station for a future moon walk ,the fascinating adventure of CLEOPATRA PART 2.

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CLEOPATRA and some of her bands member's training at the Euro space flight station for a future - Video

Space Travel Is A Fictional Jules Verne/Disney/Von Braun 33 Freemason Concept/Trick
The 33 Degree Freemasons Are Running The Space Programs) The Freemasons have total control of your mind beginning with Space, their fantasies of space and s...

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