State Of Our Space Forces

[DaJudge]

From the President, Air Force Association:
January 24, 2008
AFA members, Congressional staffers, and civic leaders, many of you on my last note asked why I left off the State of the Space Force. The simple reason is that I did not have the data ... it is not easy to come by ... and some of it is classified. That said, it is undeniable that many satellites are past their design life. The AFSPACE commander commented at an AFA event in Nov that the "US has systems in orbit which are old enough to vote." [Now some of you older members ... please don't send me replies saying the satellites could probably do a better job voting than some of our citizens !]
Here's a rundown for you - and remember these birds can't all be replaced at once:

Defense Support Program -- # of Sats - classified. </SPAN />Design life - 5 years; Avg age - classified
Milstar -- # of Sats - 5. Design life - 10 years; Avg age - 8.7 yrs
DSCS -- # of Sats - 9. Design life - 10 years; Avg age - 10.1 yrs.
Interim Polar -- # of Sats - 2. Design life - classified; Avg age - classified
Space-base Visible -- # of Sats - 1. Design life - 5 years; Avg age - 11 yrs
GPS -- # of Sats - 30. Design life 8.6 yrs; Avg age 8.2 yrs
14 Sats past design life
19 Sats one component from failure
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program -- # of Sats - 5. Design life - 4.0 years; Avg age - 7.4 yrs

Minuteman III ICBM - age - 35+ years; Expect extended operations 2020+

AF Satellite Control Network - age - 40+

Haystack Radar - age 44 yrs

Eglin Radar - age 39 yrs

Ballistic Missile Early Warning System - age 15.9 yrs

Phased Array Warning System - age 27.9 yrs

Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System (PARCS) - age 32.3 yrs And ... of course ... the above does not include the age of the launch and other key infrastructure

[redsoxski]

Air breather pilots have been in control for a long time - space didn't get the budgetary support until recently. I'm not surprised...

[UnlimitedFun]

GPS -- # of Sats - 30. Design life 8.6 yrs; Avg age 8.2 yrs [LIST]
14 Sats past design life
19 Sats one component from failure


There are still two more IIR vehicles to be launched this year in addition to the last two launched in Oct and Dec 2007. So there's four new vehicles on orbit in less than one year's time.

The IIF is supposed to start launching by the end of the year. I can't remember off the top of my head how many will launch, but its enough to replace all the IIA vehicles. The "design life" of the IIF is about what the IIA have lasted (almost twice original expectations).

GPS-III is already in the works to be launching in about 10 years. GPS-III is expected to boost the constellation up to as many as 60 vehicles on orbit...talk about potential for accuracy.

[Budman]

No comment.

[theirishavenger]

This must be why all those UFO's are getting through down in Texas.

[Trango]

Are any of you guys going to the spacecomm symposium next week?

http://www.afceaspacecomm.com/overview.php

[Knuckelhead]

GPS -- # of Sats - 30. Design life 8.6 yrs; Avg age 8.2 yrs
14 Sats past design life
19 Sats one component from failure


Thats the published info...;)

[Trango]

BTW I remember this release from 9/18, regarding GPS:

"
DoD Permanently Discontinues Procurement Of Global Positioning System Selective Availability


The Department of Defense announced today that it intends to stop procuring Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites with the capability to intentionally degrade the accuracy of civil signals.
This capability, known as Selective Availability (SA), will no longer be present in the next generation of GPS satellites.
Although the United States stopped the intentional degradation of GPS satellite signals by setting SA levels to zero in May 2000, this action to permanently remove SA eliminates a source of uncertainty in GPS performance that has been of concern to civil GPS users worldwide for some time. While this action will not materially improve the performance of the system, it does reflect the United States' strong commitment to users by reinforcing that this global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil applications around the globe.
The decision to remove the capability from the next generation GPS satellites was approved by the President after a recommendation from DoD. The move coincides with the U.S. Air Force's solicitation to purchase the next generation of GPS satellites known as GPS III.
GPS is a dual-use, satellite-based system that provides accurate positioning, navigation and timing information to users worldwide. Originally developed by the Department of Defense as a military system, GPS has become a global utility. It benefits users around the world in many different applications, including aviation, road, marine and rail navigation, telecommunications, emergency response, resource exploration, mining and construction, financial transactions and many more.





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"


I thought that was pretty interesting.