Commentary: On my way to work last week at about seven forty five, I saw a missile con trail above the Organ mountains. It was in the southeast, at the time of the sighting the con trail looked about an inch long. I live near the Farm and Ranch museum. By the time I got to the NMSU campus, the contrail arched across the sky north of Picacho peak. We have gotten used to missiles flying over our community. We know the world the world has changed since 911. The common space of the skies for civilian use is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. The Department of Defense regulates its own operations in our skies and space. I went to the White Sands Missile Range website to see if I their public information office reported on the launch. There was no information available. Yet, it flew over my hour, my place of work and my city.
So in the spirit of accountability, I decided to take some of the information I have about the space industry and see where it applies to us, the neighbors to White Sands Missile Range. No matter how big any missile range is, missiles fly over civilian populations. Our skies we believe are safe from invaders from space. Are they? North Korea is attempting to launch ballistic missiles with nuclear warhead capability. They have successfully tested their 5th and largest nuclear device underground earlier this month. The Department of Defense is tracking their missile test program. Ballistic missile travel in space. The missile defense task in space is so hard to comprehend, we might as well keep it simple. We are not prepared, yet. Ronald Regan understood protecting not only the United States but our allies was a strategic necessity for world peace. In 1983 he announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, SDI. Fast forward 33 years. How is our nation working missile defense?
In 2001, the United States Missile Defense Agency (MDA) started work on the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) which it will use to research the space-based detection and tracking of ballistic missiles. Data from STSS satellites could allow interceptor missiles to engage incoming missiles earlier in flight than would be possible with other missile detection systems, including ground systems. The Center for Strategic and International Studies reported we spent $300 million on Space Tracking and Surveillance System in 2002 and we continue to invest in this system of satellites. Likely we have spent over $30 billion on this system. The United States has four other space and near space missile defense systems in place. Space is the place where our country has multiple space and near space missile defense assets, yet, spending on these systems is at an all-time low. To intercept a missile in midcourse, we must detect, track, and determine whether it is friend, foe or junk. The United States Air Force tracks over 18,000 objects in earth orbit. Only 7 percent of those objects are operational satellites, the rest are debris- junk. We track these objects so we can detect new objects, and to determine if known objects might interfere with operating satellites.
Last week, the Department of Transportation (DOT) reported to Congress that is possible for a civilian agency like the DOT to take over responsibility for providing space situational awareness (SSA) to any entity consistent with national security interests and public safety obligations of the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration is housed within the DOT. Of interest to New Mexico is the fact that this transfer will impact our commercial space industry here in New Mexico. The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation is the office that regulates and licenses commercial launch and reentry vehicles, it licenses spaceports and regulates their activities. SSA is similar to the system in your car that alerts you when you back up and are in danger of hitting the mail box again. General Motors and the DOD worked together to refine SSA for use in motor vehicles.
This report will help the DOD save its funding to track only their own satellites and satellites of interest to national defense. If the object has a known position and it has been tracked and determined a non-threat to national security, the FAA will take over monitoring the object, thus freeing the warfighters to do their job. Major Heide Brown, who is from El Paso, operates three different integrated SSA centers for DOD. It is her job to keep her boss, Admiral Haney, the commander of United States Strategic Command, informed of all activity in space 24/7/365. She will be joining us at ISPCS, along with Dr. George Nield, who is the head of the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation. They will be addressing this new approach to involving the commercial space industry in leveraging all assets for our nation’s strategic defense. This is an all hands business. When we citizens are better informed about what is going on in our neighborhood, we are better able to take care of it. Admiral Haney has been to Spaceport America because it is White Sands Missile Range’s neighbor. If he’s interested, we can be too.