Australia looks towards space with force restructure, investment and training
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
SpaceX successfully launched a secretive US government payload called Zuma on a Falcon 9 rocket on 7 January.
The rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 8pm EST.
The launch was initially supposed to take place in November 2017 but was postponed so the California-based company could take a closer look at potential problems with the fairing - the nose cone part of the rocket that protects the payload.
Northrup Grumman, the payload manufacturer, said the launch was for the US government and would be delivered at a low-Earth orbit.
SpaceX has launched national security payloads in the past, including a spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office and an X-37B space plane for the USAF.
The company's live webcast did not show video coverage of the Zuma spacecraft after it separated from the first stage of the rocket, but confirmed that the fairings deployed and the payload was well on its way to low-Earth orbit.
After launch, SpaceX returned the tall portion of the Falcon 9 rocket to an upright landing at Cape Canaveral.
According to Elon Musk, chief executive at SpaceX, the goal is to perfect the technique so that rockets can one day become just as reusable as airplanes, thereby lowering the cost of space travel.
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
The Portuguese company’s naval communications system is in service across more than a dozen countries. It has turned to its home nation for support in developing a new vehicle based C2 system.
The Vision4ce Deep Embedded Feature Tracking (DEFT) technology software is designed to process video and images by blending traditional computer vision with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to present actionable information from complex environments.
Persistent Systems has been cleared by National Security Agency (NSA) to transmit sensitive data on commercial networks. The devices are added to the NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) component list which also includes other companies’ products providing the same security.
The release of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) has been long promised as mid-year. It is possible it could be as early as 2 June although the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to play its cards close to its chest.
Intelsat outlines how its multi-orbit SATCOM architecture is enhancing connectivity and resilience for special operations forces operating in degraded and contested environments.