Pentagon Preps for Orbital War With New Spaceplane

 

The XS-1 could replace satellites lost in battle—fast and cheap.

Aerospace giant Boeing just snagged a $6.6 million contract to design a cheap, reusable spaceplane for the U.S. military. The idea: to equip America’s space forces with an airplane-like vehicle that can fly to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere and quickly boost small satellites into orbit, and then land, refuel, load up another satellite, and take off again within 24 hours.

The so-called XS-1 program—short for “eXperimental Spaceplane 1”—isn’t a space weapon. Instead, it’s a sort of defense against space weapons—specifically, the growing fleets of killer spacecraft and satellite-destroying rockets that China and Russia are deploying.

A Coming War in Space?

Matter of fact, while the article states Russia and America have agreed not to attack each other satellites, it’s only half correct. Only America has suicidally abided by the agreement while Russia cheats as usual. Russia has within the last few years launched a space weapons program where satellites are designed and built to destroy American space-based systems. The following articles are proof enough:

Maneuvering Russian Satellite Has Everyone’s Attention

Mysterious Russian satellite, Object 2014-28E, raises fears we may be on the edge of a space arms race

Whispers about Russia’s so-called ‘satellite killer’ grow louder

Object 2014-28E – Space junk or satellite killer? Russian ‘UFO’ intrigues astronomers

Moscow Could Be Prepping for Space War With Aggressive New Satellites

 

 

The Aug. 3 segment gave an interesting look at the command based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, as well as its subordinate units and its leaders, including Gen. John Hyten, whom we covered earlier this year at the annual Space Symposium.

Besides cool footage of the laser firing at the Starfire Optical Range in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the laser helps a telescope better track adversary satellites), the segment was noteworthy for its discussion of the possible coming war in space — and America’s limited ability to thwart attacks against its most prized spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit.Without assets in space to provide GPS coordinates to precision-guided bombs, imagery from drones and communication links to troops, among other advantages, “You go back to World War II. You go back to Industrial Age warfare,” Hyten told the CBS News program.

Beijing tests anti-satellite missile: Voice of Russia

China has taken another step towards challenging US supremacy in the space race after successfully testing a “non-destructive” anti-satellite missile on July 23, reports the Chinese-language website of the Voice of Russia, the Russian government’s international radio broadcasting service.

According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, the country’s Ministry of National Defense announced a successful missile intercept test that “achieved the preset goal,” which sources from the US State Department confirmed with “high confidence” was an anti-satellite missile that aims to destroy targets through impact and does not cause an explosion.

General: Strategic Military Satellites Vulnerable to Attack in Future Space War

U.S. strategic military satellites are vulnerable to attack in a future space war and the Pentagon is considering a major shift to smaller satellites in response, the commander of the Air Force Space Command said Tuesday.

Gen. William Shelton said in a speech that China currently has a missile that can destroy U.S. satellites and warned that the threat of both space weapons and high-speed orbiting debris is growing.