By Amaani Lyle
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, June 4, 2015 – Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee
James yesterday outlined the Air Force’s contributions to human space flight
advancement and discussed projected milestones and investments in space.
James delivered the keynote address at the Center for
American Progress at an event marking the 50th anniversary of Air Force Maj. Ed
White leaving his Gemini 4 spacecraft to become the first American to walk in
space.
“Space-based capabilities and effects are vital today to
U.S. warfighting, homeland security and, indeed, to our way of life,” James
said. “Space provides us with position, navigation and timing … [and] helps us
with communications used in international banking, global commerce and remote
sensing to deter against nuclear war.”
And space is not only an enabler for other domains, the
secretary said, but also directly affects the calculus of national security.
Though for many years people largely perceived the space environment as
peaceful, James warned that is no longer necessarily so.
“Today our satellites … are threated by a proliferation of
man-made space debris and by those who would deliberately seek to counter some
of our advantages or capabilities in space,” the secretary said.
New Threats Require Different Thinking
The United States needs to think differently about
strategies to buffer against increasing threats in space, James said, and
posturing for defense and situational awareness in the domain are good starts.
“We need to … prepare for the day when a conflict on Earth could translate to
effects in space,” she added.
She cited success with the Air Force’s launch provider,
United Launch Alliance.
“The Air Force [Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle] program
has had an unprecedented 100 percent launch success rate for almost 13 years,”
James said. “We also have been encouraging newer launch providers … like
SpaceX, to help us re-energize the industrial base and to reintroduce
competition into the launch service arena.”
Recently, SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket were certified as
the national security space launch service provider, which James said enables
the Air Force to compete launch services for the first time in almost a decade.
Leveraging competition will help the Air Force drive down taxpayer costs and
boost space resiliency, she added.
Humans Will Soon Go to Mars
James said President Barack Obama’s national space
transportation policy calls on NASA to develop the necessary capabilities to
support human exploration of Mars.
During a recent speech at the Kennedy Space Center, Obama
proclaimed that by the mid-2030s, he believes the United States can safely send
humans to orbit Mars and return to Earth, and that landing on Mars will follow.
“The day we land on Mars -- and I, for one, hope that an
airman will be on that mission … who will do so in the spirit of Ed White, this
will be huge,” James said.
The Air Force’s support of the evolving space enterprise
that will continue the exploration and development of space is equally
important, the secretary said.
“The U.S. space infrastructure will grow to include
capabilities such as on-orbit servicing, assembly of large orbiting structures
and routine use of extraterrestrial resources,” she said, adding that returning
to manned missions from U.S. soil will also be among the Air Force’s
significant developments.
Innovation With Industry
Innovation and collaboration with industry keep the Air
Force at the forefront of space capabilities nationally and globally, James
said, and pays dividends for national space programs.
“The Gemini IV launch and Ed’s spacewalk … serve as shining
examples of what our government can do when we work in close collaboration with
industry,” she said. “So much of what we do depends on that innovation that
comes to us from industry.”
With last year’s announcement that NASA selected SpaceX and
Boeing to develop the commercial crew capsule, the secretary said she believes
it’s “very likely” that airmen will return to space by way of Air Force launch
facilities before the decade’s end. “That will mean the days of relying on
Russians in this way will be numbered,” she added.
As the Defense Department’s executive agent for space, James
said, she looks broadly across the enterprise at its strategy, budgets and
threats. This, she told the audience, calls for greater investments in
training, doctrine and tactics, just in the air and cyber domains.
Space situational awareness, or “the eyes in the sky,”
underpins the domain’s programs, specifically related to launching humans and
national security payloads into orbit, the secretary said. In July 2014 for
example, the Air Force launched two geosynchronous space situational awareness
program vehicles that are currently progressing with on-orbit research,
development, testing and evaluation.
“This program is going to provide us with unprecedented
awareness of the activities of other satellites and geosynchronous and
geostationary orbits,” James said, adding that it will be “one of our key
neighborhood watch programs.”
Pending an approved budgetary request, the Air Force is on
track for the 2019 introduction of the Space Fence, which the secretary said
can track smaller objects in low-Earth orbit, adapting capabilities to the
trend of smaller and more capable satellites. “Even very small pieces of debris
can do enormous damage to these precious satellites,” she said.
People are Greatest Factor in Space
Airmen, James said, have been seminal contributors to space
advancement over the decades, including pioneers such as Astronaut Buzz Aldrin,
who became the second moonwalker as part of the Apollo 11 mission and set a
spacewalk record with five and a half hours outside the spacecraft during the
Gemini 12 mission.
More recent examples, she said, include retired Air Force
Gen. Kevin Chilton, who logged more than 704 hours in space before serving as
commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and retired Air Force Col. Eileen Collins,
who logged 872 hours in space and was the first woman to pilot a shuttle and
command a shuttle mission.
James also noted Air Force Col. Terry Virts’ service as
commander of the International Space Station, which, over the past 15 years,
has been inhabited by astronauts from around the globe to advance space goals
for humanity.
Orbiting 250 miles above the Earth, Virts and his team are
responsible for “the most comprehensive study of year-long effects of space on
the human body,” James said. The study, she added, will yield “absolutely
essential information and insight … that will be pivotal in determining how
humans will ultimately survive a mission to Mars.”
But in considering how to inspire and motivate future airmen
in space, James noted that the Air Force’s contributions don’t begin and end
with astronauts. Thousands of engineers, scientists, maintainers and other
dedicated professionals also work toward sustaining America’s leadership in
space, and launch infrastructure rockets such as the Atlas and Delta have been
“workhorses” for space exploration, she said.
Defense Department investments include billions of dollars
in the space industrial base and James said she predicted a budget uptick in
that area due to the program’s significance.
Encouraging Future Airmen, Astronauts
But capabilities alone will not suffice in keeping an
advantage in space, James said.
“Our airmen … must continue and become even more well versed
in space, its application and its defense,” the secretary said. “Our airmen
have to enhance their knowledge of how information … permeates all military
systems and contributes to critical information and vital intelligence.”
Nurturing greater interest in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics careers focused on space will ensure future airmen
have a sustained zeal and curiosity for the field, James said. The Air Force
and the Air Force Association partnered with industry to develop a program,
Stellar Explorers, a STEM-themed group encouraging friendly competition in
innovation and this year, coincided with the Space Symposium in Colorado, she
noted.
“I’m hopeful … that programs like Stellar Explorers will
inspire our youth and put them on a path toward careers involving space that is
enriching, rewarding and fun. … Let’s face it -- space is fun,” James said.
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