The Air Force just awarded an $8.9 million contract to Boeing to study elements of a conventional prompt global strike missile demonstration. Pursuing a conventional missile capability for PGS—defined as within one-hour—is on the service’s hot list, courtesy of the Quadrennial Defense Review, however the concept has its critics, including some in Congress. Still it’s on the Administration agenda. Last year, the Air Force awarded contracts for new PGS-related propulsion system. This new contract with Boeing would employ a Minotaur launch vehicle “because of its near-term asset availability and low-cost profile, according to a Boeing statement. USAF wants the work done by June 2009.
Special-ops aviators, a physicist from the intelligence community, and an enlisted Marine with decades of deployments: U.S. Space Command’s military and civilian leaders who spoke May 7 were as likely to come from strictly space backgrounds as not. These are some of the day’s insights from inside the command, which…