Air Force Academy cadets will track space debris under an $800,000 grant that the institution received, reported the Colorado Springs Business Journal. The grant will allow the academy’s Center for Space Situational Awareness Research to develop a series of small, geographically dispersed telescopes, known as Falcon Telescopes, with which the cadets will follow thousands of smaller objects on orbit in addition to the 22,000 larger pieces that the Air Force already tracks. The academy is partnering with colleges in Colorado and Chile on the project. The grant will cover establishing a telescope in Chile that will offer cadets a view of space from the Earth’s southern hemisphere that is not currently available, according to the journal. (See also Crowded, Congested Space from the Air Force Magazine archives.)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.