Budget sequester leaves US de-'fence'-less in space. [View all]
Source: Al Jazeera America
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The Space Fence, which, despite its name, consisted of operational facilities on the ground, across the southern United States, had been shut down. In more than 50 years of operation, it had played a key role in the Space Surveillance Network, set up by the U.S. military to track man-made debris — and help keep valuable satellites and spaceships from smashing into them. According to the Air Force Space Command, which ran the network, the shutdown was made necessary by the 2013 the budget sequester and will save $14 million per year in operating expenses. But some argue that the shutdown has reduced the capability of an already-imperfect surveillance system, potentially increasing the risk of a costly collision.
The thousand or so currently active satellites provide essential infrastructure for the modern world: GPS, television transmission, weather prediction, scientific exploration, search-and-rescue and international financial transactions are key functions facilitated by satellites.
Functioning satellites are vastly outnumbered by orbital debris — a smorgasbord of defunct satellites, spent rockets, exploded satellite and rocket bits, paint flecks and liquid leaked from nuclear reactors that once powered Soviet spy satellites. The military’s Space Surveillance Network maintains a catalog of more than 23,000 orbiting objects larger than a grapefruit, and there are estimated to be tens of millions of pieces of debris too small for the network to detect. Hurtling around the Earth at up to 20,000 miles per hour, even a small piece of debris can rip through a satellite or spaceship.
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Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/2/budget-sequestorleavesusdefencelessinspace.html
We can keep tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan for another year (at the cost of over a million dollars each) but we can't afford fourteen million to protect our invaluable communications and navigation satellites?
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