By 2015 -- a deadline set by U.S. Strategic Command -- space engineers and managers at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., are to be ready with a range of backup options and satellite sensors that could be launched quickly if an enemy were to knock out critical U.S. surveillance satellites, or if regional commanders requested more sensor coverage. American defense officials call the concept operationally responsive space, or ORS, something they've been talking and writing about for at least five years. Early work was dominated by launch vehicle development and PowerPoint brainstorming, but in 2007, Congress ordered the Pentagon to draft a firm ORS plan. The Pentagon responded by establishing an Air Force office at Kirtland to make ORS "tangible," as one official put it, and shift the focus to small satellites.
展开▼
