Wednesday night’s launch of the Defense Department’s first Operationally Responsive Space satellite was successful, according to Air Force space officials. They said the prototype imagery satellite deployed 12 minutes after its liftoff aboard a Minotaur I launch vehicle from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s eastern shore. “Words cannot express how proud I am of the entire ORS-1 team,” including Air Force, DOD, and industry personnel, said Col. Carol Welsch, acting director of USAF’s Space Development and Test Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M. She was also the ORS-1 mission director. ORS-1 is designed to provide commanders at the tactical level with overhead imagery to enhance their battlespace awareness. (Los Angeles release)
In AI Experiment, UK and US Simulate Adjacent Operations
Oct. 20, 2021
Held an ocean apart but simulating adjacent military forces, a virtual demonstration Oct. 18 gave the U.K. and U.S. militaries cause to project optimism over someday jointly adopting artificial intelligence “that can learn in the field.” The test represented “just the first step” on the way to an “experimental trial…