US defense officials approved the first Operationally Responsive Space satellite, ORS-1, for shipment to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia for integration with its Minotaur 1 launch vehicle. The satellite is currently scheduled for launch in mid June. “This team has just accomplished the impossible by building an operationally relevant satellite in a mere 30 months,” said Col. Carol Welsch, acting director of the Air Force’s Space Development and Test Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M., in a release. “We’re excited to field this important capability to meet a [US Central Command] urgent need.” The satellite features the SYERS-2 electro-optical/infrared sensor—the primary camera on the U-2 reconnaissance airplane—and will provide battlespace awareness to troops in Southwest Asia. ORS-1 still needs to complete launch-site testing, vehicle checkout, and launch vehicle integration and closeout at Wallops before launch. (See also ORS-1 Nears Launch from the Daily Report archives)
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…