Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has added his voice to the Administration chorus chanting “veto, veto” if lawmakers enact a proposed $7 billion cut to the President’s request for the Fiscal 2006 defense spending bill. Of particular note in a letter Rumsfeld sent to appropriations legislators is his list of “particular concern” programs, which includes the Joint Strike Fighter, Space Radar, and the Transformation Satellite.
As commercial companies, universities, and research agencies develop new approaches to operating satellites at lower and lower altitudes, the Space Force is taking notice and considering how it might leverage those advances in both the near and long term.