U.S. military considers cubesats in low-Earth orbit for tracking enemy ballistic and hypersonic missiles
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is using a pair of cubesats to develop a system to track hostile ballistic and hypersonic missiles from launch to impact. New Atlas reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
26 July 2021 -- Part of the Nanosat Testbed Initiative, the CubeSat Networked Communications Experiment (CNCE) Block 1 launched from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California on June 30 for a three-month technology demonstration or orbiting missile tracking.
When deployed aboard satellites in low-Earth orbit, the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) aims to track hypersonic missiles globally in all phases of their flight as well as feed data to command centers and interceptors to identify and destroy them. To accomplish this, the constellation of satellites must communicate with one another and with the interceptor missiles.
Launched into space by VOX Space LLC using an aircraft-mounted rocket, the two satellites, each about the size of a loaf of bread, will demonstrate how to use networked radio communications between satellites in orbit to support the future missile defense system using HBTSS. By using CubeSats built with off-the-shelf parts, the Missile Defense Agency can quickly and cheaply roll out modifications and test them in space as the technology matures. Each satellite costs about $1.3 million.
Related: NRL launches nano-satellite experimental platforms
Related: The evolving world of radiation-hardened electronics
Related: NASA Marshall chooses PCI/104 rad-hard power card from Andrews Space for CubeSat design
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
