Air Force Space Command

The Air Force Space Command ( AFSPC; German Space Command of the Air Force ) is one of ten major commands of the United States Air Force ( USAF). Its headquarters is located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, USA. Commander is General William L. Shelton since 2011.

It is the space division of the U.S. Air Force and responsible for starting, operating and monitoring of military satellites for reconnaissance, communications, and weather data. In addition, the AFSPC operates a global network of radar stations for surveillance of space in order to warn of approaching enemy missiles can.

The water used in the civil sector Global Positioning System ( GPS) is operated and monitored by the 50th Space Wing of the AFSPC on the Schriever AFB, Colorado.

Since 2009, the remit also includes cyber warfare.

From 1993 to 2009, the Space Command was also responsible for land-based U.S. ICBMs ( 500 launchers from LGM - 30G Minuteman III).

For AFSPC include the

The staff of the Air Force Space Command in 2011 counted about 42,000 people.

History

Since the possibilities and the importance of military satellites since the 1970s constantly increased, founded the USAF on 1 September 1982, a Space Command to cover this area. On November 15, 1985, the name change to Air Force Space Command was. On 1 July 1993 finally took the AFSPC responsibility for intercontinental ballistic missiles, which had been located at the Air Combat Command. 2009, there was a major restructuring: The party responsible for ICBMs 20th Air Force was transferred to the newly established Air Force Global Strike Command, and in return received the Space Command with the 24th Air Force responsibility for cyber warfare.

Orbit determination of satellite

For the determination of the orbital data from earth satellites is from the United States Air Force 's 20th Space Control Squadron under the motto DETECT - TRACK - IDENTIFY at 33 ° north latitude in the U.S., a multistatic radar consisting operated from three transmitting and six receiving stations. The transmitters generate an RF fence, which extends in an east-west direction from the Atlantic to the Pacific and in North-South direction, a thickness of 0.02 ° ( 15000 km altitude) has a frequency of 216.98 MHz. Satellite happen with a sufficiently large orbital inclination of this RF field so that time, direction, and Doppler shift of the scattered signals can be detected by the receiving stations with phased array antennas for defining the path continuously on its orbit. The reception of the radar echoes is also possible with amateur means.

Satellites of the AFSPC

The following are the active satellites of the Air Force Space Command are listed.

State of the list: August 4, 2008