Northrop Grumman announced Thursday that the two space tracking and surveillance system demonstration satellites that it built together with Raytheon successfully detected and tracked a missile over the Pacific Ocean during a Missile Defense Agency flight test last month. “The STSS satellites operated as expected and the system generated high-quality track data during the boost phase,” said Gabe Watson, Northrop’s vice president for missile defense and missile warning programs. During the June 6 test, a two-stage ground-based interceptor missile was launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. It was the inaugural flight of this GBI variant. The two STSS satellites were placed into low Earth orbit last September. They are designed to validate technology for space-based tracking of ballistic missiles throughout their flight trajectories. They are also helping MDA officials mature concepts of operation for a future operational constellation of such missile-tracking satellites.
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
