Tag: Space Race

China, Russia and the New Space Race

Article by James Stavridis                                           April 12, 2021                                          (bloomberg.com)

• Russia and China are contesting the US militarily, from the Arctic to the Baltics to the South China Sea. A few weeks ago, the two nations agreed to build a joint research station on the Moon. In an online statement, the China National Space Administration said the base would be open to “all interested countries and international partners”. But if you look at recent Russian and Chinese space operations, they have a distinctly military bent. And the idea of general political and military cooperation between the two is gaining speed, from massive war games on the Siberian border to warship deployments in the eastern Mediterranean and the North Atlantic.

• Washington needs to understand the strategic approach being taken by both of these US rivals in space. The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the lesser-known Secure World Foundation have recently released reports highlighting a cluster of Russian activities that have caught the attention of the US intelligence community. These include significant antisatellite missile tests throughout 2020; flights of Russian spacecraft very near US spy satellites; tests of projectile launches in space; and fraying ties with the US in civilian and scientific space cooperation.

• As the supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, this article’s writer, James Stavridis, spent a good deal of time with the then-Russian ambassador to the alliance, Dmitry Rogozin. Rogozin went on to serve as deputy prime minister in charge of all Russian defense and space industries. Since 2018, Rogozin has been the head of Roscosmos, the equivalent of NASA. Given his strong defense background, Rogozin brings a military thrust to the Russian space program.

• Ten years ago, Rogozin told Stavridis that Russia’s military future was in space. In 2014, Rogozin mocked the US space program on Twitter as needing a trampoline to bring astronauts to the International Space Station. After a successful commercial launch by SpaceX in 2020, Elon Musk tweeted back, “The trampoline is working.”

• China doesn’t have the decades-long history that Russia has in the space domain, but the Chinese are accelerating rapidly. China had landed a lunar module on the Moon, returning soil samples. It launched a Mars probe that is currently orbiting the red planet. And it has plans to build a Moon base, along with Russia. All of this is part of an emerging “space culture” in China.

• Chinese efforts in space have an increasingly military feel to them as well. China has 363 satellites in space, second only to the U.S. (with more than 1,300). The Chinese have been conducting anti-satellite tests for nearly two decades, including missiles and lasers. They have devoted considerable effort to sharpening offensive cybertools that can go after US space assets. The Chinese have also fired more rockets into space than any other country for three years straight.

• As Russia and China come together to operate in the cosmos, their overall military and strategic cooperation will increase as well. The fledgling US Space Force must be part of a US response. America needs a small but elite US Cyber Force working alongside our allies, much as China and Russia intend to do. And Washington needs a coherent plan for private-public cooperation and to prioritize defense dollars for space.

• [Editor’s Note]   The author of this article, retired Admiral James Stavridis, is intent on associating Russia with China’s CCP. And where is he now that he has retired from the US Navy? He is an operating executive with the Carlyle Group, a notorious bastion of the deep state elite trying to stoke a war between the US, China and Russia. China has invited “all interested countries and international partners” to join them in the development of a Moon base. After the deep state stopped utilizing Russian space rockets to bring Americans to the International Space Station in favor of their darling, Elon Musk, why wouldn’t Russia be interested in another Moon program? And didn’t the Russian navy just work with the US Navy to bottle up the Evergreen container ship ‘Ever Given’ in the Suez Canal, which reportedly contained not only trafficked humans but weapons of mass destruction?

What is really going on is a war between the deep state and non-compliant Alliance countries like Russia. Deep state shills like Admiral Stavridis only want to demonize Russia and stir up World War III to give the deep state a path to total control over the planet and the solar system. Unfortunately, Administrator Biden is also a deep state lackey who supports this evil agenda. It is up to the white hats in the US military to excise the deep state trolls from its ranks, completely remove the deep state from power, and set the planet on a course of peace and prosperity – including our expansion into space to stand alongside our space cousins – which the deep state has actively prevented since WWII.

 

          Fmr Admiral James Stavridis

Russia and China are looking hard at how they should allocate defense spending to

       Dmitry Rogozin

contest the U.S. militarily, from the Arctic to the Baltics to the South China Sea. Near the top of both national shopping lists are military operations and assets in space, and the most intriguing aspect of their decision to look to the stars is that they are going to do it together.

Most notably, the two nations agreed a few weeks ago to build a joint research station on the moon. In an online statement, the China National Space Administration said the base would be open to “all interested countries and international partners,” which sounds relatively benign. But if you look at recent Russian and Chinese space operations, they have a distinctly military bent. And the idea of general political and military cooperation between the two is gaining speed, from massive war games on the Siberian border to warship deployments in the eastern Mediterranean and the North Atlantic.

What should the U.S. be doing?

First, Washington needs to clearly understand the strategic approach being taken by both of these rivals, who are now peer competitors, at least in space.

We should begin with Russia, which has had a very long and successful track record in space operations dating back to Soviet times. The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the lesser-known Secure World Foundation have recently released reports highlighting a cluster of Russian activities that have caught the attention of the U.S. intelligence community.

These include significant antisatellite missile tests throughout 2020; so-called close aboard flights of Russian spacecraft very near U.S. spy satellites; tests of projectile launches in space; and fraying ties with the U.S. in civilian and scientific space cooperation. (The two nations have previously worked together closely, especially on the International Space Station.)

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We Are in a Space Race That America Needs to Win

Article by Richard M. Harrison and Peter Garretson                          July 10. 2020                          (newsweek.com)

• The Trump administration views space as a new arena of strategic competition. The Pentagon’s recently released ‘Defense Space Strategy’ defines the space domain as “vital to our nation’s security, prosperity and scientific achievement.” Today, the space market is estimated to be $350 billion. But the US Department of Commerce says that current projections put the global space economy at $1 trillion by 2030 and $3 trillion by 2040.

• Meanwhile, American private sector space firms have reduced launch costs, making the positioning of technologies in space more feasible and affordable than ever before. New technological breakthroughs have made activities like mining asteroids achievable within a decade. But this future space economy depends on investment, which depends on security, which depends on a committed US military presence in space. The US Space Force must be capable of defending American interests against both global adversaries who would disrupt US space architecture, as well as natural threats such as asteroids and comets.

• Undoubtedly, the biggest danger is the People’s Republic of China. Beijing recognizes the value of the space domain, and is now trying in earnest to utilize space to achieve its great power ambitions. In April 2019, Dr. Namrata Goswami told the U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission that China had plans to become the world’s leading space power by 2045. To this end, China has already landed on the far side of the Moon and created a lunar biosphere simulation, housing inhabitants within its closed ecosystem for a year. China is developing techniques for asteroid mining, and has developed nuclear-powered shuttles for space exploration and for the industrialization of the Moon. It plans to fabricate satellites that can harness energy in space to become the world’s top supplier of non-carbon producing energy.

• More specifically, China plans to create space-based commercial and industrial facilities and transportation by 2021; space-based power generation by 2030; lunar mining by 2030; and asteroid mining by 2032. China could also gain advantages in areas such as artificial intelligence and cyber-related technologies, thereby increasing its war-fighting capabilities and telecommunications

• The strategic role in space to which Beijing aspires is potentially threatening to the United States, both economically and militarily. The United States will need a concrete plan to go on the strategic offensive to prevail as the planet’s dominant space power.

 

The Trump administration is getting serious about space. Although they have been mocked by critics ignorant of their importance, steps like the administration’s commissioning of the U.S. Space Force, its establishment of a dedicated Space Command and the creation of a dedicated space technology development arm are all signs that the White House is beginning to view space as a new arena of strategic competition. The latest sign in this regard came last month, when the Pentagon formally released its Defense Space Strategy, which defines the space domain as “vital to our nation’s security, prosperity and scientific achievement.”

       Dr. Namrata Goswami

This bold statement reflects a potentially transformative reality: that space is still a largely untapped resource. Today, the current space market is estimated to be $350 billion, but in three decades, it could be worth exponentially more. By the middle of the 21st century, both Bank of America and Merrill Lynch estimate, the space economy will be worth roughly $2.7 trillion.

American policymakers are eager to tap into that potential wealth. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross gave a speech earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos in which he noted that, “Current industry projections place the 2040 global space economy at between $1 trillion and $3 trillion. And I think we will certainly get to a trillion before 2030.” He specifically mentioned America’s near-term priorities in this domain to include lunar mining, asteroid mining and space tourism.

Industry, meanwhile, is already moving in this direction. American private sector space firms have reduced launch costs, making the positioning of technologies in space more feasible and affordable than ever before. Meanwhile, new technological breakthroughs have made activities like mining asteroids achievable within a decade.

But all of that hinges upon investor confidence, and that in turn requires security. For the space economy to expand to its full potential, tech firms and investors alike need to know that their stakes will be safeguarded by a U.S. government that is serious about space. Increasingly, American national security, and our growing list of space-based economic assets, requires a committed military presence with the capability to defend against dangerous naturally occurring phenomena (including asteroids and comets), as well as potential adversaries who are actively developing the means to disrupt, degrade and destroy vital components of the emerging U.S. space architecture.

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Artwork by Dave Simonds for The Economist

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Retired Air Force Major Claims Alien Was Killed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst

Listen to “E96 9-15-19 Retired Air Force Major Claims Alien Was Killed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst” on Spreaker.
Article by Erik Larsen                    September 3, 2019                       (app.com)

• John L. Guerra has published a book entitled, “Strange Craft: The True Story of an Air Force Intelligence Officer’s Life with UFOs”, wherein Guerra claims that a military police officer shot an extraterrestrial being at Fort Dix in the early morning hours of Jan. 18, 1978. Former Air Force intelligence officer Major George Filer III, now 84 and living in living in Medford, New Jersey with his wife Janet, wrote a top-secret memo about the incident.

• On a cold dark night in January 1978, a soldier was driving a military police vehicle through the woods on the Air Force side of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, NJ, in pursuit of a strange, low-flying aircraft that had been observed passing through the military installation’s airspace at about 2 am. Suddenly the soldier realized that an oval-shaped craft radiating a blue-green glow was hovering directly over his vehicle. Then a greyish-brown creature with a big head, long arms and slender body walked out of the nearby shadows and showed itself by stepping into the vehicle’s headlights. The soldier drew his .45 caliber pistol and shot the creature five times, killing it. Its remains gave off a foul-smelling, ammonia-like stench. A cleanup crew from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio flew in to retrieve the body. The retrieval crew acted as if this occurrence was not out of the ordinary.

• Major Filer arrived on base before dawn that day to prepare his daily intelligence briefing for his superior officers. Security at the base had been tightened and Filer personally observed the emergency response in the aftermath of the incident. Filer interviewed witnesses but was denied access to photos taken at the scene. The senior master sergeant on duty told Filer, “An alien has been shot at Fort Dix and they found it on the end of our (McGuire AFB) runway.” Filer asked, “Was it an alien from another country?” “No,” said the master sergeant. “[I]t was from outer space, a space alien. There are UFOs buzzing around the pattern like mad.”

• The Air Force classified everything as top secret and silenced the witnesses through national security restrictions and good old-fashioned intimidation. Everyone, that is, except Filer who has spoken publicly of the incident ever since. The local newspaper, The Trentonian, first reported about the incident in July 2007. The Air Force has repeatedly denied the claim, however, telling the newspaper that “the case was discredited as a hoax years ago.”

• The official explanation for the “misidentification” was that, in 1978, people were in a UFO frenzy with the US/USSR Space Race and the Apollo Moon missions still fresh in everyone’s minds. Earlier that year, Steven Spielberg had released his blockbuster movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, and the movie “Star Wars” had been in theaters the previous year. UFO sightings had greater credibility back then. There were 377 references to UFOs published in the press between 1977 and 1978, compared to 85 references between 2017 and 2018. Even President Jimmy Carter had acknowledged that he had seen a UFO and pledged to uncover whatever secrets about UFOs the government may have been hiding.

• Then there were the strange booms heard in the sky over the Jersey Shore and much of the East Coast between December 1977 and March 1978, which had the population on edge. One boom was so loud that it caused a tremor in southern Ocean County and the evacuation of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey, NJ. The booms were blamed on sonic booms from the supersonic British-French airliner, the Concorde, flying out of JFK Airport. However, subsequent booms did not conform to the Concorde’s schedule.

• Whatever happened at McGuire Air Force Base on Jan. 18, 1978, it is now part of folklore. While Filer never actually saw the dead alien, he says that he knows for a fact that the story is true. Filer claims to have seen UFOs throughout his entire life, starting at age 5 outside his boyhood home in Illinois. He later served as the state director for MUFON in New Jersey. (See a 48 minute video of George Filer describing the Fort Dix incident below.)

 

Was an alien shot and killed in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey?

A new book, titled “Strange Craft: The True Story of an Air Force Intelligence Officer’s Life with UFOs,” claims that a military police officer shot an extraterrestrial being at Fort Dix in the early morning hours of Jan. 18, 1978.

In the book by author John L. Guerra and published by Bayshore Publishing Co. of Tampa, Florida, retired Air Force Major George Filer III — a decorated former intelligence officer for the 21st Air Force, Military Airlift Command at the adjacent McGuire Air Force Base — recounts the extraordinary tale from America’s disco age.

              Ret. Major George Filer III

Filer, now 84 and living in Medford with his wife, Janet, said what has been an urban legend first promulgated by UFO enthusiasts since the early 1980s is indeed true. That’s because he was there and wrote a top-secret memo about it, he said.

In the freezing winter darkness of that day in January 1978, a bipedal creature, described as about 4 feet in height and grayish-brown in color, with a “fat head, long arms and slender body,” was shot to death with five rounds fired from a service member’s .45-caliber (military issue M1911A1) handgun.

As Guerra explains it in his book, the soldier had originally been in a police pickup truck, driving through the wilderness of the base in pursuit of a strange, low-flying aircraft that had been observed passing through the military installation’s airspace about 2 a.m. that morning.

About an hour into the drive, the soldier became aware — in typical, horror movie fashion — that the craft, oval-shaped and radiating a blue-green glow, was hovering directly over his vehicle.

That’s when the “creature” emerged from the shadows on foot, revealing itself to the soldier by stepping into the beams of the vehicle’s headlights where the panicked MP drew his weapon, ordered the alien to freeze, and he fired.

According to the retired major as told in the book, the alleged alien succumbed to its gunshot wounds on the Air Force side of what is now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County; its remains giving off a foul-smelling, ammonia-like stench.

Later that morning, a cleanup crew from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio — headquarters of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center — flew in to retrieve the body, behaving as if the creature was, well, not entirely alien to them.

The Asbury Park Press reached out to the Air Force at the Joint Base for comment about this story, but never heard back.

48 minute video of incident at Fort Dix with George Filer (Delinda Jeffry YouTube)

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