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Air Force News Service

02/14/03

DOD space chief outlines priorities
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By Master Sgt. Scott Elliott, Air Force Print News

CHANTILLY, Va. -- Things are going well for the national security 
space program, but America needs a roadmap to ensure future success, 
the Defense Department's executive agent for space said Feb. 12.

Peter B. Teets, undersecretary of the Air Force and director of the 
National Reconnaissance Office, discussed the country's top national 
security space priorities at a media roundtable conference at the NRO 
headquarters here. 

"Any discussion of priorities needs to start with the notion of 
ensuring mission success in space operations," he said. "Our space 
assets are now probably more important to warfighters, more important 
to our ability to win the global war on terrorism than they ever have
been." 

According to Teets, there have already been two successful national 
security space launches in 2003, with 12 more scheduled. There was 
only one last year. 

The key to maintaining the schedule, he said, is a viable fleet of 
launch vehicles. The United States currently uses the Atlas V and 
Delta IV evolved expendable launch vehicles to boost spacecraft into 
orbit. 

"It's important to have two EELVs ... as independent as possible so, 
in the event one of them suffers a launch failure ... (it) won't bring 
the ... program to a halt while we get to the root cause, make the fix 
and get back into space again," he said.

While the current vehicles are the best the nation has ever had, Teets 
said he is looking for better things to come.

"If we're going to have operational, responsive, assured access to 
space, we need to (reduce launch preparation) time from weeks and 
months down to hours and days," he said.

To accomplish that goal, Teets said he is expecting to see smaller 
launch vehicles than can be erected on the launch pad, bolted to a 
spacecraft and fueled by a tanker truck. 

Other goals on the agenda include developing a cadre of space 
professionals, integrating space capabilities for warfighting and 
intelligence, getting space acquisition programs back on track and 
refocusing on science and technology programs.

"Breakthrough technologies are going to allow us to collect our 
adversaries' secrets without their knowing they're being collected," 
Teets said. "If we're going to win this global war on terrorism, we're 
going to have to get ourselves in position where we can collect
information about (terrorist groups). We need to find out where they 
are, what they're thinking (and) what they're plotting."

Equally important, he said, is enhancing the nation's space control 
capability. 

"Our space systems give us a very significant capability advantage," 
Teets said. "There's no doubt in my mind that our adversaries have 
taken note of that, so it's going to be important for us to put 
meaningful resources against, first of all, space situation 
awareness." 

According to the undersecretary, the first step in defending America's 
space assets is knowing more about what else is up there.

"We track objects, but we don't know an awful lot about what all those 
objects may be," he said. "We need to get a better handle on (that), 
then we need to implement some defensive measures."

Teets said the first space situational awareness measures would 
include attack-warning sensors, but the nation needs to pursue 
offensive space capabilities as well. 

"The fact is that we're going to want to, if necessary, deny an 
adversary their use of space," he said. "Offensive space capability is 
something I think we need to start to work on."

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