The Air Force says it can currently detect a missile launch anywhere in the world, but it cannot track satellites all the way up into orbit in real time. "It's one thing to bear witness to what is go
ing on in that environment," says Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, director of space and nuclear operations for the Air Force. "It's another thing to be immediately able to attribute what happened to someone. We've got a ways to go to have that kind of clarity as quickly as we need it."
ing on in that environment," says Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, director of space and nuclear operations for the Air Force. "It's another thing to be immediately able to attribute what happened to someone. We've got a ways to go to have that kind of clarity as quickly as we need it."Some of the U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq's troubled Anbar province most likely wondered why the Air Force was sending a space weapons expert to help them fight Sunni insurgents. But U.S. forces there had a tough problem. Traditional artillery was too inaccurate for urban hotbeds like Fallujah, and insurgents took cover when they heard attack aircraft overhead.
The Army offered what seemed like a good solution—the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, a mobile battery that fires precision missiles from miles away. The powerful new weapon, however, came with a serious glitch—the launcher sometimes relied on outdated coordinates from GPS satellites, which could send rockets hundreds of yards off target. Maj. Toby Doran, the space expert, helped find creative ways to prevent th
e error, and the launcher was put into action.
e error, and the launcher was put into action. That's just one small example of how integral satellites have become to even the most basic daily operations of today's U.S. military, not to mention the broader U.S. economy. But any sense that this crucial sophisticated technology is out of the reach of potential enemies because it flies hundreds, even thousands, of miles above Earth disappeared early this year.
On January 11, China blew up one of its own aging weather satellites with a rocket launched from a space center in Sichuan province.
