Boeing announced Tuesday that the Air Force’s space based space surveillance system satellite has been shipped to Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in preparation for its scheduled launch on July 8. The move comes after the satellite completed its final factory functional checkout. The satellite will now be readied for integration onto its host Minotaur IV launch vehicle. Once on orbit, SBSS will be the sole US space-based platform for detecting and monitoring objects in space. Air Force officials have said it will significantly improve US ability to track and monitor satellites, debris, and other objects in space that could threaten US space assets. Boeing and partner Ball Aerospace are supplying the satellite.
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…