In Early 2019,U.S. Air Force Command will activate a powerfull new space surveillance radar to replace an array, shut down in 2013, that had served since the age of Sputnik. Now under construction, the new array will operate in a band offrequencies 1,000 times higher than those covered by the previous system, activated in 1961. Shorter wavelengths make the new radar more precise; it will be able to detect targets as small as about four inches in diameter(as opposed to the old 30-inch limit) and will expand the catalog of space debris tracked by the Space Command from about 23, 000 objects to 200,000.
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