Air Force to Congress: Save the Space Fence

Earth is surrounded with lots of space debris.

Earth is surrounded with lots of space debris. NASA illustration

The proposal preserves development of new radars aimed at keeping vessels safe from deadly space trash.

Months after sequestration cuts shut down the country's "Space Fence," the Air Force budget unveiled Tuesday preserves $2 billion to build a successor to the program that helps keep space vessels safe from high-speed orbital debris.

For the Air Force, keeping its new radar installations off the Pentagon's budget-cut chopping block was essential. The Space Fence is part of the Air Force's Space Surveillance Network, which tracks many of the roughly half-million pieces of debris that clog Earth's orbit.

At 17,000 miles per hour, even a marble-sized object could cause catastrophic damage to a spacecraft. And one collision can cause a debris field that leads to many more—a scenario demonstrated in the movie Gravity. The Space Fence helped decrease that risk. In 2012, the network helped satellite owners make 75 maneuvers to avoid collisions.

Last September, the Space Fence—responsible for 40 percent of the network's tracking—shut down. It had been in operation since 1961. The Air Force blamed the closing on "resource constraints caused by sequestration." While the first half of that release laments the loss of Space Fence's information, the last five paragraphs hype the newer, better Space Fence, calling it key to the Air Force's future tracking ability.

So what did we lose, and what will we gain? First, the advantage of Space Fence over other programs on the Space Surveillance Network is its uncued tracking. Rather than following specific objects, it served as a "trip wire" to monitor space events, such as debris-causing collisions.

When the new Space Fence is installed, it will bring back that capability—but on a much more powerful scale. The Air Force hopes to have S-band radars ready by 2018. While the current Space Fence could see about 23,000 objects larger than four inches, something like 480,000 smaller objects still threaten spacecraft. S-band will expand our ability to see those pieces of debris.

The first S-band radar, the Air Force confirmed in its budget, will be located in the Marshall Islands, allowing better tracking of orbits that cross the Southern Hemisphere. The second is expected to be built in western Australia.

While the Air Force saved $14 million when it shut down Space Fence last year, the new-and-improved version in this year's budget will cost close to $2 billion. And the painful, short-term cuts may have had a role in preserving the program's long-heralded upgrades.

Since last year's Space Fence cuts inhibited our ability to track debris in the near-term, wrote Brian Weeden, a veteran of the Air Force's space programs, they made it that much more important to preserve that capacity in the future. By crippling the program's current operations—which Weeden says wasn't necessarily mandated by sequestration—the Air Force added pressure to the Pentagon to approve the the S-band radars and restore the early-warning system.

"The Pentagon is under significant pressure to find budget cuts and there was an internal debate over whether the S-Band Space Fence was really worth the investment," Weeden wrote in an email. "...[I]f un-sticking the roadblock to the S-Band Space Fence was the goal, then on the surface [cutting the Space Fence during sequestration] seems it may have worked." He added that there's still no proof the Air Force deliberately cut Space Fence to pave the way for its successor.

Air Force spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.