Congress Denies Funding for BASIC Satellite Procurement

摘要

Congressional appropriators have denied the Pentagon's request for funds to procure as many as two commercial-class imaging satellites for military and intelligence users and ordered a study on how best to fulfill the full range of national security imagery requirements, U.S. government and industry sources confirmed Oct. 21. The action was taken by members of the House and Senate appropriations committees in the classified annex to a massive bill funding U.S. government activities, including defense, for 2009, according to Michael Birmingham, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The Broad Area Space-based Imagery Collection, or BASIC, program was approved by the Department of Defense and ODNI earlier this year, with a first launch scheduled for 2012 or 2013. The BASIC plan calls for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office to procure as many as two satellites with imaging apertures of 1.1 meters - comparable to commercial spacecraft operated by DigitalGlobe of Long-mont, Colo., and GeoEye of Dulles, Va.