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OF SPECIAL INTEREST NEWS
“Golden Dome”
“The Golden Dome air and missile defense system will be fully operational in two and a half to three years and cost about $175 billion to protect the U.S. homeland against a wide range of attacks by missiles, aircraft and drones, President Donald Trump said May 20.
“The Oval Office announcement came after the Pentagon submitted proposals to comply with Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order to establish an “Iron Dome for America,” including space-based interceptors. The concept was later renamed the Golden Dome.
“In his remarks, Trump said the system would have nearly 100% effectiveness against air and missile threats, but released few key details, including the various sensors and effectors, as well as the areas to be actively defended.” Quotes above are from: https://aviationweek.com/defense/missile-defense-weapons/trump-outlines-175-billion-three-year-golden-dome-plan.
The U.S. Space Force and numerous experts have lauded the concept, but are highly skeptical about the budget and time-line. Other negatives to the plan include the need to continue to slash NASA’s science-related budget, including NASA’s nascent ability to protect us from non-military dangers, such as asteroid impact.
The technological aspects of identifying, tracking, and intercepting hypersonic targets is formidable. Further, since the GD program will have to have powerful orbit-based weapons firing downward near/at the United States, the prospect for friendly-fire missiles was not discussed (recall that many of the American deaths during the Pearl Harbor attack were civilians hit by anti-aircraft misses).
However, the United States is facing a much more dangerous set of adversaries than it did at the dawn of the Space Age. The present balance of power has been maintained in large part by the use of orbital reconnaissance to allow the USA and Russia (USSR) to see and understand what the “other guys” are up to, but other players are gaining power, and a rogue nation/group could deny access to LEO by exploding objects in it that would at least temporarily take out our eyes in the skies.
Stephen N. Whiting, commander of the U.S. Space Force, spoke on the need for Space-based military assets at the recent USSF Space Symposium last month; see: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/us-needs-orbital-interceptors-to-win-a-war-in-space-space-command-chief-says.
In addition, “Space Force officials have expressed interest in commercial solutions for space access, mobility and logistics (SAML) technology that would enable military satellites to be easily refueled on orbit or allow for the rapid servicing or deorbiting of an ailing spacecraft.
“Those company investments are coming to fruition: Northrop Grumman announced April 9 that a Mission Extension Vehicle developed by the company’s Space Logistics subsidiary recently performed the first undocking between two commercial spacecraft in the geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) graveyard, when the spacecraft decoupled with Intelsat’s IS-901 satellite after providing five years of life-extension services.”
For more info on this topic, see the source of the above quote at: https://aviationweek.com/shows-events/space-symposium/debrief-us-space-force-orbit-maneuvering-demos-tap. For more about the Space Symposium 2025, see: https://aviationweek.com/space-show-news and https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-spatial-awareness-live-40th-space-symposium .
Could the U.S. Lose Its Leadership in Space? is an interesting podcast posted by Aviation Week recently.“Is the United States in danger of losing its enviable leadership position in Space? As Space becomes an increasingly contested domain and US adversaries develop new capabilities, the alarm bells are growing louder by the day. Make no mistake, the US Space industry is still on the cutting edge. The concern is whether the federal government is equipped to harness innovations that are being rolled out at a breakneck pace.” For more on this important topic, see: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-could-us-lose-its-leadership-space.
OF SPECIAL INTEREST FYI
For Those of You in the Colorado Springs Area: The Space Foundation Discovery Center on Garden of the Gods Avenue has undergone a significant expansion and updating. Find out more about it at: https://discoverspace.org and more about the Space Foundation at: https://www.spacefoundation.org. In addition, the Planetarium at the U.S. Air Force Academy offers a variety of public programs; for more information, see: https://www.usafa.edu/facilities/planetarium. But be advised that the Academy has new stringent requirements to enter. The Academy also has great STEM outreach programming for students and teachers, see: https://www.usafa.edu/research/stem-outreach.
Jack Cross: I have met an interesting fellow on-line via one of NASM’s wonderful Docents. His name is Jack Cross, and he proudly served in the U.S. Navy from 1950 to 1954 as a Bosun’s Mate. He was on a series of warships at first, then he moved over to the USS Yellowstone, a tender that served the Navy’s Sixth Fleet. He joined the Navy and saw the world!
Now retired, Jack has put together a series of picture-rich PowerPoint presentations. He kindly gave me permission to post three of them already, one about D-Day, one about “A Day of Mercy in the Sky,” and one about his Navy career, which gives a real interesting look at what Navy life was like at the start of the Cold War. Check all three out on the Archive: Other Stuff page of the website! Thank you, Jack!
OF SPECIAL INTEREST LINKS AND OTHER INFORMATION
IN THE NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM
NASM’s Bong P-38: Richard I. Bong, the highest-scoring American fighter pilot in WWII, came back to the U.S. before the end of the War. In addition to his appearing at bond drives, he became a test pilot. He was a Wright Filed outside Dayton on April 16, 1945, slated to fly a P-338 with an experimental control system. The test went awry before it began, when the right engine exploded. Major Bong was able to land the aircraft without further difficulty. That very aircraft is now on display in the Hazy Center today! For more information on Dick Bong, see the Item of the Week in this installment. For more on the NASM P-38, see: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/lockheed-p-38j-10-lo-lightning/nasm_A19600295000.
Vintage Aviation News recently posted a piece about the changes being made in NASM’s Pioneers of Flight Gallery. NASM folks already are familiar with this, but those of you waiting to see the National Mall Building of NASM after its ongoing renovation will want to check this out: https://vintageaviationnews.com/aviation-museum-news/pioneers-of-flight-gallery-at-the-national-air-and-space-museum.html!
DOCENTS (and all others interested in Solar System exploration history): If you don’t have an on-line copy of Fordham University’s Asif A. Siddiqi’s fabulous book, Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, you should. You can find it at: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/beyond_earth_detail.html.