(Abbreviated from the full entry in the Space Warfare Forum.)
The second day of the 2009 Strategic Space Symposium was just as good as the first, and in some ways better. Highlights:
- NGA Director VADM Robert Murrett, discussed NGA’s partial reliance on commercial satellites like GeoEye
- I found myself slowly becoming an ORS convert, as the vision explained was different from the old “rapid space reconstruction” idea
- I was pleased to learn that the ORS program will probably call for launching stored spacecraft before they become obsolete, which will be important for developing and sustaining a viable industrial base
- I began to think that ORS might better be called ODS: “operationally deployable space” instead of “operationally responsive space”
- The “Industry Perspectives” panel discussed how disruptive unstable funding can be to the aerospace supply chain, and how changing a system’s requirements usually dooms all efforts to complete acquisition programs on time and under budget
- I was pleasantly surprised by the mild industry response to an ITAR question: maybe industry’s usual negative reaction is not to the idea behind the ITAR but rather to specific items on the USML and the MCTL (some items could probably be removed from the lists, if doing so doesn’t jeopardize national security)
- The luncheon speakers gave excellent presentations on the warfighters’ perspective on space systems and space support, but I was surprised that neither of them mentioned the recent Chinese statement about developing offensive and defensive space capabilities
As on day one, I had some great conversations with company representatives and old Air Force colleagues, so for me the symposium ended as well as it began. Well done!
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