The Air Force’s first Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellite looked like a goner just days after its launch on Aug. 14, 2010. The $2 billion spacecraft’s main propulsion subsystem failed as controllers tried to start transferring it into its intended geosynchronous orbit. The giant satellite could have died a quick death, but it didn’t. Instead, it was the beneficiary of a remarkable USAF-led 14-month rescue effort that saw it reach its assigned orbit on Oct. 24. Now in the midst of checkout, the Air Force expects the AEHF satellite to enter full operational service early next year and function for its full planned 14-year life. Air Force Space Command officers have begun talking fairly openly about the rescue mission. To read the complete story of the recovery effort, click here.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…