The Space Force wants to deploy repair kits to space to keep satellites from going down, as it prepares for a potential conflict with China, the Air Force undersecretary said Monday.
The goal is to have “tactically responsive space systems that allow us to if, for example, a satellite goes down, within five days get a repair package up into orbit to rapidly be able to repair that capability,” Melissa Dalton said during a Brookings Institution event. “That is something that we are demo-ing real time, and I think, is going to provide a really effective demonstration effect to the likes of the [People’s Republic of China.”
Dalton’s comments come as defense officials raise concerns about militarized activity in space.
“We can say that China has developed robotic satellites that are really probably dual use. They can be used for nonmilitary purposes, but they can clearly also be used for military purposes, like grappling a satellite,” John Plumb, then the Pentagon’s head of space policy, told lawmakers in May.
One U.S.-based company, ThinkOrbital, has been working on the repair-an-orbiting-satellite problem by launching an autonomous toolkit with robotic welding abilities.
U.S. officials have repeatedly warned of the consequences of a war that incorporates space-based weapons, noting that satellites are a critical part of everyday life, and that military missions and intelligence gathering increasingly rely on satellites for navigation and communication.
China and Russia are developing “counter-space capabilities that are deeply concerning,” including an anti-satellite weapon Russia launched in the orbit of a U.S. government-owned satellite, Dalton said.
“Russia, just in May, launched into a coplanar orbit with one of our satellites, a capability that is deeply concerning in close proximity to a U.S. government satellite. And then, of course, as has been discussed publicly, the potential Russian intention to launch a nuclear-capable satellite into orbit as well, which would be deeply destabilizing,” Dalton said.
But there’s no indication that’s already happened, she added.
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