Lifeboat Foundation

Saltzman, the service’s deputy chief of space operations, cyber and nuclear, envisions a future testing and training enterprise where space operators can connect virtually to practice tactics and new satellites and sensors are assessed in realistic simulated environments to make sure they’re working as designed.

“We don’t really have that ability to connect those things together,” Saltzman said during a recent Defense Writers Group event. “If you think about connection of simulators, if you think about that virtual range where those simulators plug in so they’re in an operational environment so they can see each other in a virtual sense — that’s kind of the next generation of training.”

The Space Force is on a path toward creating a National Space Test and Training Complex that could make Saltzman’s vision a reality. The service released its Test Enterprise Vision in May, identifying the NSTTC as a key enabler for space system and operator readiness.

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency wants to buy 10 satellites to support a new on-orbit experimentation effort.

The agency released a draft solicitation June 3 for the National Defense Space Architecture Experimental Testbed, or NExT, seeking a satellite provider to integrate government-provided payloads onto 10 satellites that SDA will use to test new capabilities.

The testbed will support SDA’s vision of creating a constellation of hundreds of satellites operating in low Earth orbit and is on track to launch the first of those systems this fall. While the initial solicitation will be for 10 satellites, an SDA official told C4ISRNET June 14 the agency expects NExT to provide an “enduring” test and experimentation capability. The official spoke on background to freely discuss the program.

The US Transportation Command, or USTRANSCOM, are a Pentagon office tasked with transporting cargo to American global military assets, announced that it was partnering with SpaceX to examine the feasibility of quickly blasting supplies into space and back to Earth rather than flying them through the air.

SpaceX is already functionally a defense contractor and has launched American military satellites and recently bolstered Ukrainian communication links with Starlink.

Practical uses

Continue reading “Pentagon considers using SpaceX for fleet of militarized Starships” »

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has let the company capture high definition video of its rocket landing on a ship.

SpaceX successfully launched satellites into orbit Friday afternoon from the Kennedy Space Center.

The Falcon 9 rocket carried 53 Starlink satellites into low orbit.

This sci-fi megastructure has captivated big thinkers for decades. A leading expert in astrobiology tells us how to construct one.

The paper focused more on theory than engineering, and Dyson provided scant details on what such a megastructure might look like or how we might build one. He described his sphere only as a “habitable shell” encircling a star. But that was enough to captivate and inspire astrophysicists, scientists, and sci-fi writers. In some depictions, the Dyson Sphere, as it became known, appears as a massive ring encircling a star and reaching nearly to Earth. In others, the Sphere completely encases the sun, a hulking megastructure capturing every bit of that star’s energy. In addition to scientific works, Dyson Spheres have appeared in novels, movies, and TV shows—including Star Trek —as a home for advanced civilizations.

Dyson himself understood the challenges of constructing such a massive structure, and he was skeptical that it might ever happen. Nonetheless, his Sphere has stirred ambitious ideas about the future of our civilization, and it continues to be offered as a solution to some of humanity’s most dire dilemmas. Harnessing the total energy of our sun—or any star—would solve our immediate and long-term energy crisis, but when civilization gains access to the complete energy output of a star, meeting our terrestrial energy needs is just the beginning.

Continue reading “Swarms of Satellites Around the Sun Could Supply Us With Unlimited Power” »

SpaceX has already launched around 2,000 satellites for its Starlink internet service and is now prepared to take it to the next level. Elon Musk has announced that the company will turn on laser inter-communication between satellites to dramatically reduce latency.

Elon Musk said deploying Starlink at sea ‘will be relatively easy.’

SpaceX’s Starlink internet is living up to its billing as a service that will be available almost anywhere on Earth, including in the air and out at sea.

That’s because the satellite internet service may soon be available for passengers aboard Royal Caribbean Group cruise ships, according to a blog post from the company.

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service is gearing up to activate its satellites in polar regions, which might include laser coverage.