Mantis Society Study Center: SpaceNews This Week | U.S. budget news; FCC boss endorses SpaceX constellation; IC weighs in on Russian, Chinese ASAT capabilities

Friday, February 16, 2018

SpaceNews This Week | U.S. budget news; FCC boss endorses SpaceX constellation; IC weighs in on Russian, Chinese ASAT capabilities

February 16, 2018

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NASA budget proposal seeks to cancel WFIRST

Jeff Foust, WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is offering $19.9 billion for NASA in its fiscal year 2019 request, while seeking to cancel a flagship astronomy mission and end NASA funding of the International Space Station in 2025.

A key cut included in the proposal, released Feb. 12, is cancelling the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), the agency's next flagship astrophysics mission after the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA had been in the midst of revising the mission's design to lower its costs from an estimated $3.9 billion to $3.2 billion.

"Development of the WFIRST space telescope would have required a significant funding increase in 2019 and future years, with a total cost of more than $3 billion," the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stated in a document outlining planned cuts across the overall federal budget proposal. "Given competing priorities at NASA, and budget constraints, developing another large space telescope immediately after completing the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope is not a priority for the Administration."

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FCC chairman urges approval for SpaceX's satellite internet constellation

Caleb Henry, WASHINGTON — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai wants his agency approve SpaceX's 15-month-old application to serve the U.S. with its proposed megaconstellation.

In a statement released just days before SpaceX launches its first two prototype satellites, Pai urged support of the company's application within the FCC, saying Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX can help reach rural and isolated parts of the country with high-speed Internet.

"To bridge America's digital divide, we'll have to use innovative technologies. SpaceX's application — along with those of other satellite companies seeking licenses or access to the U.S. market for non-geostationary satellite orbit systems — involves one such innovation," Pai said.

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U.S. intelligence: Russia and China will have 'operational' anti-satellite weapons in a few years

Sandra Erwin, WASHINGTON — Experts have warned for some time that wars in space are not just Hollywood fiction. And the scenario appears increasingly more likely, according to the latest analysis by the U.S. intelligence community.

"We assess that, if a future conflict were to occur involving Russia or China, either country would justify attacks against U.S. and allied satellites as necessary to offset any perceived U.S. military advantage derived from military, civil or commercial space systems," warns the 2018 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, released this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The United States has benefitted from a tidal wave of innovation in the space industry, but so have many other nations. "Foreign countries — particularly China and Russia — will continue to expand their space-based reconnaissance, communications, and navigation systems in terms of the numbers of satellites, the breadth of their capability, and the applications for use," said the report.

Both Russia and China continue to pursue anti-satellite weapons knowing that, if successfully employed, could undermine U.S. military capabilities, analysts noted. "Russia and China aim to have nondestructive and destructive counter-space weapons available for use during a potential future conflict."

More military space headlines