General Atomics wins Air Force contract to build technology test lunar satellite
General Atomics yesterday announced that it has been awarded an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contract to build a satellite to test a variety of technologies in near lunar space.
The AFRL Oracle spacecraft program is intended to demonstrate advanced techniques to detect and track objects in the region near the Moon that cannot be viewed optically from the Earth or from satellites in traditional orbits such as geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO). The anticipated launch date for the Oracle spacecraft is late 2025.
While this is good business for General Atomics, the company is not selling its product to the Air Force, but building what the Air Force wants, making the spacecraft government owned. This is how the space industry functioned in the United States for almost a half century after Apollo, generally accomplishing little for great cost. Much better in the long run if the military bought this kind of product from private companies, who developed it for profit and for sale not just to the military.
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General Atomics yesterday announced that it has been awarded an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contract to build a satellite to test a variety of technologies in near lunar space.
The AFRL Oracle spacecraft program is intended to demonstrate advanced techniques to detect and track objects in the region near the Moon that cannot be viewed optically from the Earth or from satellites in traditional orbits such as geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO). The anticipated launch date for the Oracle spacecraft is late 2025.
While this is good business for General Atomics, the company is not selling its product to the Air Force, but building what the Air Force wants, making the spacecraft government owned. This is how the space industry functioned in the United States for almost a half century after Apollo, generally accomplishing little for great cost. Much better in the long run if the military bought this kind of product from private companies, who developed it for profit and for sale not just to the military.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
In general I agree, but major infrastructure typically starts as a government initiative and becomes a commercially outsourced resource once a viable private sector market emerges. And that does not always happen. This strikes me as quite analogous to building Air Traffic Control and Earth Orbit tracking and control, both of which are still primarily government driven because they must be 24/7/365 reliable and require regulation to constrain chaos. Weather and Earth Resource monitoring have moved past the government only model, but only because they are not as subject o these requirements and other lucrative customers for these services exist.
With development on the moon an obvious Next Step we are going to pursue, establishing a good handle on orbital debris and vehicles we need to track in the region is a good idea. And with any luck they will find the Eagle too and we’ll have an opportunity to save it for capture and return to the Smithsonian some day.
Historically Dual Use technology was often the result of civilian initiative first. The Taxis of the Marne ran in WWI with the taxi meter running. Farm equipment was first to use what became tank tracks, 1904 Caterpillar. Aircraft, telephone, radio, all civilian first
Of couse now we have big science and so often military funding first.
But Dual Use is so very important even now for being cost effective and building industrial might. With ITAR and NOFORN controls of course.
The subtle force is the ownership aspect that Zimmerman [Robert, not the WWI telegram guy] emphasized.
Over time Dual Use and private ownership, initiative and risk are the only sustainable way to go.
I wonder what secret tech the military needs to test in Lunar orbit that can not be tested in Earth orbit?
My guess is this is about the AF/Space Force tracking Chinese activity.
They would want to keep knowledge of
such capabilities closely held.
pzatchok;
Everything that is dangerous and experimental will need to be tested in 0G of lunar orbit. New drugs and dangerous compounds, as well as experimentation with nuclear devices cannot be performed where there’s a possibility of falling back to earth and infecting earth. (Another Wuhan pathogen for example)
But then you knew this, you asked the question to make people think… “what’s really going on?”
Where private companies will build, improve, innovate, advance capabilities towards a particular goal using technologies developed just for this purpose thereby succeeding where none other has before…
The military only concerns are how do we defend ourselves from threats, what new tools can we use for this purpose. How do we control the threat, and if control is not possible, how do we eliminate the threat. What is the enemy planning? And how do we counter that threat.
An entirely different objective for different reasons. And there is no higher ground than lunar orbit. You cannot destroy a enemy you you cannot see.
Military platforms in geosynchronous are vulnerable… Perhaps this is a checkmate move? My imagination tends to run away with me. Watching too many movies with AI in them lately.