SBSS = Minotaur 4 - 26.09.10 08:41 ЛМВ - Vandenberg

[Liss]

Не строго в тему, но не в Австралию же отправлять... :-)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-10/30/c_13582922.htm

Western Australia to host U.S. defense space base

CANBERRA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Western Australia will host a new multimillion-dollar U.S. defense base to spy on foreign satellites and keep watch on dangerous space junk, local media reported on Saturday.

Fairfax newspapers reported that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is poised to announce the space base when he visits Australia next week with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

As a major expansion of the U.S. military footprint in Australia, the paper said the base is likely to be built at the top secret Harold E Holt Naval communications station at Exmouth of Western Australia.

The facility will allow Australia to become a key partner in the international battle for space supremacy.

It will have major technology and intelligence spin-offs, putting Australia at the forefront of an emerging battle between nations staking claim for territory in space occupied by 600 billion dollars (588 billion U.S. dollars) of civil and military hardware, Fairfax wrote.

According to Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith, last year's Defense White Paper stated Australia's strategic capability advantage depended on its ability to access space and protect the nation from "foreign exploitation by space-based capabilities".

"The U.S. Space Surveillance Network is the principal system Australia and other nations rely on to detect, track and identify objects in space," Smith told Australia Associated Press on Friday.

"While no decisions have yet been made, Australia and the United States are discussing the potential for supporting the U.S. Space Surveillance Network and the development of Australia's space situational awareness."

[ZOOR]

Надо туда внедрить Frigate  :!:

[Sharicoff]

Про перспективы заказа второго SBSS'а.

[Pol]

http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=1070134585
SBSS' Satellite...Seven Successful Years Passes Milestone

[SatNews] Seven years of cooperation involving SBSS have resulted in passing a milestone.

Recently, the Air Force transferred Satellite Control Authority of the SBSS Block 10 satellite to the 1st Space Operations Squadron, 50th Operations Group at Schriever AFB, Colorado. This important milestone reflects more than seven years of effort and cooperation between the Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Functional Component Command for Space, The Boeing Company, and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

As a taskable dedicated sensor within the nation's Space Surveillance Network, SBSS performs space surveillance operations in support of U.S. Strategic Command. Block 10 is the only space-based sensor in the network, operating 24-hours a day, 7- days a week collecting metric and Space Object Identification data for man-made resident space objects without the disruption of weather, time of day and atmosphere that can limit ground-based systems. This improved access to observe RSOs significantly enhances the ability to provide timely, critical information so desperately needed in today's contested, congested and competitive space environment. Providing improved detection timeliness assists the Joint Space Operations Center with maintaining an accurate knowledge of RSO orbital positions, tracking new objects and debris, and reducing the number of uncorrelated targets currently in the space catalog.

SBSS Block 10 was launched aboard an Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV rocket from Vandenberg AFB, California, September 25, 2010. The first signals from the advanced space surveillance satellite were received a short time later at the Satellite Operations Center at Schriever.

SBSS has a 500-pound optical camera mounted on an electronically movable gimbal.

"It's an agile sensor so it can be tasked to look at high-interest objects on a more frequent basis," said Col. Stephen Butler, Air Force Space Command's chief of Space Situational Awareness and Command & Control.

"Having a space-based component means that if you need observation on a satellite that's out there, you can get it any time, regardless of day, night or weather," said Col. Steve Smith, chief of the Advanced Systems Division in SMC's Space Superiority Systems Directorate.

After healthy satellite delivery to orbit, the SBSS development team immediately began a comprehensive and carefully controlled five month on-orbit initialization, checkout, calibration and system characterization process. SCA transfer represents a successful culmination of these on-orbit checkout processes and puts the SBSS Block 10 on a solid path to achieving Initial Operational Capability.


SBSS Observing Resident Space Objects in Deep Space

[Salo]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48732135/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.UGf5067YfAx

US Air Force begins using Boeing surveillance satellite
Will track other satellites, thousands of bits of debris that could pose risk to spacecraft

By Andrea Shalal-Esa
updated 8/20/2012 8:43:57 PM ET

The U.S. Air Force on Monday said it would begin operational use of a new Boeing Co surveillance satellite built to monitor debris and other satellites in space — nearly two years after the satellite was first launched.

Air Force Space Command said the new Space Based Surveillance Satellite system had achieved its initial level of capability and was ready to support U.S. military requirements after a delay linked to a piece of electronics on board.

The system is the only space-based sensor capable of detecting and monitoring debris, satellites and other space objects without disruptions fr om weather, atmospheric factors or the time of day that can limit ground-based systems.

"This improved access to observe orbiting objects significantly enhances the ability to provide timely, critical information so desperately needed to support warfighter decision making," the Air Force said in a statement.

When the satellite was launched in September 2010, Boeing predicted it would be ready to perform its mission within 60 days, but its "initial operational capability" was delayed by problems with some onboard electronics.

The problem occurred when the satellite traveled through the South Atlantic Anomaly, an area wh ere the Earth's magnetic field is weakest and orbiting satellites are exposed to higher than usual levels of radiation.

The Air Force began implementing a fix for the issue in May, followed by successful software testing that allowed it to start using the satellite.

The new satellite will help the military better track other satellites in space and thousands of bits of debris that could pose a risk to spacecraft.

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

[Liss]

Нарисовался наследник SBSS по имени ORS-5:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1409/03ors5/

U.S. Air Force officials have approved a stopgap mission for launch in 2017 to monitor satellite traffic in geosynchronous orbit, tasking the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory to design and build a small space surveillance satellite.

The mission, known as ORS 5, is managed under the auspices of the U.S. Air Force's Operationally Space Office based at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
The small spacecraft will fly in a low-inclination orbit several hundred miles above Earth with a sensor to scan geosynchronous orbit, a heavily-trafficked belt of satellites 22,300 miles over the equator...

The Air Force announced in July that it will task MIT's Lincoln Laboratory to design and build an operational demonstration of the SensorSat satellite, a concept proposed by the lab's researchers for several years.

Air Force Gen. William Shelton, then the head of Space Command, told lawmakers in April that the ORS 5 mission would bridge a potential gap in surveillance of geosynchronous orbit currently provided by the Space Based Space Surveillance, or SBSS, satellite launched in 2010.

The Air Force is working on a follow-on satellite to the SBSS project for launch in 2021. Technologies demonstrated on ORS 5 could be harvested for the SBSS follow-on mission, officials said.

[Олег]

Интересно, Space-track выдал таки данные на USA-216, по крайней мере с 1.1.2024, хотя он вроде
До 19 марта орбита не менялась , была примерно 618 х 620 км. Сейчас 491 х 618 км.
Может быть готовят к ПБС, вроде как срок службы уже вышел.

[C-300-2]

А что за дым идет за секунду до "включения" двигателя?

Скорее всего, включается пороховой БИМ - бортовой источник мощности, обеспечивающий работу рульмашинок, качающих сопло.
В описании "Пискипера" (МБР ССР и США, Волков, стр. 222) как раз говорится о ПАДе. Естественно, для того. чтобы система вышла на режим, её запускают заранее. Посмотрите пуски твердотопливных изделий - там по таким вот выхлопам видно, что БИМ включают заранее.