Free Republic

A Chinese national has been arrested on suspicion of flying a drone to take photographs over a US Space Force base. Federal police arrested Yinpiao Zhou on Monday after he was allegedly caught flying a drone over the Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California. In a criminal complaint, the US Attorney’s Office said Mr Zhou flew a drone over the base and took photographs on Nov 30 – the same day it launched a rocket on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office.

In this era of Great Power Competition, it is imperative to not leave capability on the ground.'.. SpaceX just added another batch of launches to its already-busy manifest. The U.S. Space Force announced on Friday (Oct. 18) that it has awarded SpaceX $733.6 million, in the form of two "National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 Launch Service Task Orders." Together, the two task orders cover seven launches for the Space Development Agency (SDA) and one "mission set" for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), according to Space Force officials. "In this era of Great Power Competition, it is imperative...

Generative AI “will undoubtedly revolutionize our workforce and enhance Guardian’s ability to operate at speed,” Lisa Costa, Space Force’s chief technology and innovation officer, said in the memo. But Costa also cited concerns over cybersecurity, data handling and procurement requirements, saying that the adoption of AI and LLMs needs to be “responsible.” No further explanations were provided. Experts have flagged a risk that, under some conditions, voluminous and potentially non-public data involved in feeding models with documents and prompts could end up leaking out into the public arena or get hacked in other ways. The memo said Costa planned to...

Space Force leaders are still struggling to rebrand an organization that has been lampooned since before its birth. Now, they are conflicted about becoming the military's go-to on what the Pentagon now calls "unidentified aerial phenomena," according to five current and former officials taking part in the discussions. The unclassified summary stated that "we currently lack sufficient information in our dataset to attribute incidents to specific explanations." It also concluded that the unknown craft "clearly pose a safety of flight issue [Does it really?] and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security.[Based on what?]" ...[Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen] Hicks...

Liftoff is at 1:35 p.m. EDT (1735 GMT) Designated Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Flight 5 (SBIRS Geo-5), the mission marks ULA's first launch so far this year. However, the company has a busy summer planned, including the launch of Boeing's Starliner crew capsule to the International Space Station. That mission, called OFT-2, will be the spacecraft's second uncrewed orbital flight test. The first, which occurred in Dec. 2019, failed to reach the space station due to a software issue. Following a successful second flight test, Boeing will launch its first crew of astronauts later this year. Weather...

The Trump administration celebrated the first birthday of the U.S. Space Force on Friday by announcing that its members will be known as “guardians.” Vice President Mike Pence made the announcement at a celebratory event tracing the development of the newest branch of the military over the past year. “It is my honor, on behalf of the president of the United States, to announce that henceforth the men and women of the United States Space Force will be known as guardians,” Pence said. “Soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and guardians will be defending our nation for generations to come.”

This Independence Day, read the unexpected history of the songs that have led our nation's soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen into battle. Armies have used music to rally troops in battle since biblical days. During the American War for Independence, boys too young and men too old to fight often played the fife and drum for the Continental Army, using music to signal commands as well as to boost soldiers’ morale.A particular tune might direct troops to cease fire, or to reload their rifles. While music rarely has such a practical use on the battlefield today, each branch of the...

Vice President Mike Pence said that the U.S. has more military satellites than any other country. Verdict: True The U.S. has 166 military satellites, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Russia and China have the next largest constellations at 89 and 84 military satellites, respectively.