The United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) unmanned Delta IV rocket capped off this month’s failed launch attempts by successfully flying off air from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Monday at 7:28 p.m. EDT, carrying two American military spy satellites intended to oversee objects, debris and just about anything that might pose a threat to its military satellites in space.
The space rocket, about 206 feet or 63 meters tall and 721,000 pound, finally blasted through partly cloudy skies for the U.S. Air Force’s AFSPC-4 mission, delivering the two satellites of the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) into “near-geosynchronous orbit,” as well as an Automated Navigation and Guidance Experiment for Local Space (ANGELS) small satellite.
Based on ULA’s issued mission details, the GSSAP’s twin spacecraft supports the space surveillance operations of the U.S. Strategic Command and the space situational awareness data collection of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space.
Meanwhile, the ANGELS satellite, run by the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate, is tasked to scrutinize techniques to provide a clearer image of the environment that surrounds the important space assets of the U.S.
“This neighborhood watch twosome will help protect our previous assets in geo, plus they will be on the lookout for nefarious capability other nations may try to place in that critical orbital regime,” Gen. William Shelton, head of the US Air Force Space Command, said to gathered reporters, as quoted by Defense News.
Shelton added that they will get to learn a huge deal on the geo traffic from the satellite-produced images.
Naturally, critics and observers raised their concerns on the GSSAP mission and perceived it as an offensive capability. For instance is Tea Group analyst Marco Caceres who said it could be regarded as offensive.
“Obviously, the US Air Force is primarily thinking of it as defensive or simply from a maintenance and repair standpoint. But if you have the ability to get close enough to other satellites to observe or repair or refuel, then sure, you could probably take them out,” said Caceres.
Secure World Foundation’s technical adviser Brian Weeden, however, looked at it as a mission truly for space situational awareness and protection, but at the same time said that the US government should prove that it isn't otherwise.
Recall that Delta IV’s launch was impeded four times this month because of unfavorable weather conditions and issues with ground support equipment environmental control system.
According to the ULA’s Facebook account, Delta IV launch was dedicated to their colleague and friend named Michael Woolley. ULA is a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
