Our Desert Storm experience in the tactical utility of DoD space vehicles demonstrated that DoD's investment in space technology can provide a significant military advantage during tiems of crisis and war. The satellites what gave us such marvelous intelligence in locating. tracking, and enabling the successful attack of key targets resulted in a spectacular military success. However, without an on-orbit servicing capability, the fuel consumed to maneuver these satellites into position over the battlefield shortened their useful life by as much as two years. During the 1970's and 1980's, the Air Force aggressively pursued an or-orbit support capability to support and maintain it's space-based assets. However, in the early 1990's, budgetary and political priorities canceled the programs that would have made this a reality.
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