Before it got moved to DHS, the Coast Guard was part of the Department of Transportation (and, before that, the Treasury Department).
Interesting concept. Not sure why they're not calling on SpaceX for this; seems much more likely that in an emergency they'd be the ones to have a spare booster available. Also, if I was trying to have quick satellite replacement capabilities and had the budget of a branch of the US military, I'd launch a diverse array of backup satellites into different orbits on top secret launches ahead of time, and leave them dormant and ready to change orbit to replace a destroyed satellite so that an enemy wouldn't know which ones didn't have backups, rather than relying on record-fast replacement launches.
This might be one of those cases where they're required to award the contract to someone they don't already have a bunch of them with (so as to encourage competition), or it might be that SpaceX doesn't have the right tech. Sticking a satellite on top of a rocket is a complicated business. Then, you've got to get the rocket to the pad and (presumably) fuel the rocket up. The big edge the US wound up having over the Soviets when it came to nuclear missiles was that we switched ours over to solid-fuel, rather than liquid-fueled. Not only did this lower our maintenance costs, but it meant that we could have ones ready to go at any time. Doesn't work like that. Yes, the US military absolutely has backups to their orbiting satellites that they don't talk about, but thanks to radar, everybody knows what's up there. A satellite that suddenly shows up after a secret US military launch and doesn't transmit any signals to Earth is going to be known about by every other spacefaring nation out there. They might not know what that satellite is for, but they'll be able to have a pretty good guess. Additionally, the US military is known to use extremely short-lived satellites for when they want to gather additional data about something. This lets them put the birds into unstable orbits that give them information when the other sats they've got up there would be in a different part of the sky. I think that what they're aiming to do with this is plug a hole that nobody cares too much if a satellite images a location once a day (or so), until they see armed convoys headed towards a border. At which point, you're going to want as much intel as you can possibly get. So sending up a sat that can image the border between Assramastan and Fuckstainastan multiple times a day becomes important, and you're not really concerned if you have to stick the sat in an orbit that's not going to last more than a month. If it looks like shit's going to get real bad, then you can work on shifting the orbits of established sats to image the area more often before the sacrificial satellite burns up.
Makes sense but the article specifically talked about quickly launching replacements for satellites destroyed by enemy action.
Still doesn't change anything. If Russia, for example, decided that they wanted to take out our satellites that can image Ukraine, our goal is to replace them as quickly as possible. We're not going to care if that sats only going to be up there for a month, we need real-time data, and we need it now. How long is it going to take to shift other satellites into position to fill the hole? Even if there's a backup in orbit, it will take it a while to get to where it needs to be, unless it has an identical orbit to the sat that the Russians took out (so that'll be their next target). And odds are, the Russians are going to know which ones are easiest to move to plug the hole. Which means they'll likely be taken out in the near future. So you need to be able to put something up there that can get you the pics you want, and is less likely to be in range of a satellite killer.
Buzz Aldrin made honorary brigadier general of Space Force. https://thehill-com.cdn.ampproject....e-force/amp/?amp_js_v=0.1#webview=1&cap=swipe
Alabama Congressman Wants to Restrict Air Force Travel Funds as Battle Over Space Command HQ Heats Up
Isn't there an easy solution like giving AL space-X because they cannot fuck up exploding dick ships any more than anyone else? Elon is their new hero, so let us give them what they want with fiery debris raining down on them. We can give them all twitter accounts and self driving Teslas with a giant wall around their back assward state of dumbass. While we are at it they can have the floriduh panhandle down to Ocala.
Elon wants to start using hydrogen batteries. It makes me wonder if he isn’t using all the EV stuff as the drawing boards for Space X. I mean, that is the jewel in the crown?
Securing Us ‘In, From, and to Space’: New Space Force Mission Statement Has Our Heads Spinning The new mission statement is shorter and simpler, but somehow even more confusing.
I'm watching the Voyager episode "Bride of Chaotica" and Doctor Chaotica has a Space Force. Is whoever came up with the name a Voyager fan?
How is this picture supposed to indicate how they will take over and make orange droolius president again? I heard that was the newest way he secretly has control of the military. Is there a giant space laser in there like in Real Genius? I am not sure if those lasers were jewish or not. Knight doesn't sound like a jewish name, nor does hollyfelld. Mitch had a sort of jewishy nose, but his parents looked christian nutbar to me. I am not good at identifying jews and their things. I just don't give enough of a shit to think about it unless I meet the person, and I do not meet many space lasers to know what philosophy they adhere to. Why does MTG know a space laser is jewish? How does that even work? Is there some star of david configuration of the photons or something? Is it only coherent in hebrew? I don't get it.