Last week, the Pentagon released an unclassified summary of its Annual Report on Military Power of Iran, dated January 13. Inside Defense wrote a story on it, “DOD: Iran, With Foreign Help, Could Demonstrate ICBM By 2015”. Read More
Latest Posts from Laura Grego
More Official Bluff and Bluster on Missile Defense
March 18th, 2013
Last week, Jay Carney, the White House spokesperson, stated in a press conference, “I can tell you that the United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack.” The confidence in that statement was reinforced by the White House announcement that it would add 14 more interceptors to the Ground-based Midcourse (GMD) missile defense system to buck up that capability to defend against North Korean missiles. Read More
Update of UCS Satellite Database
February 4th, 2013
A new version of the UCS satellite database has been released which includes launches through November 30, 2012. There are currently 1046 active satellites in the database. Read More
Iran’s Launch Today–and in the Future
January 28th, 2013
Iran’s English Language outlet Press TV reports today that today (Monday) Iran has successfully launched a monkey on a suborbital flight in its new capsule called Pishgam (Pioneer). The Iranian Fars news agency said the capsule was lofted to the desired altitude of 120 km, sent back telemetry, and returned to earth where the monkey was retrieved safely. Read More
Does a High-Altitude ASAT Test Make Sense?
December 20th, 2012
China’s Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun made a statement last month denying that China planned to test a new anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon and that it was holding off until November so as not to affect the U.S. presidential election. The ASAT story seemed to originate in a Bill Gertz video and article on a new conservative U.S. Read More
Claims about China’s Space Plane Unconvincing
December 7th, 2012
Following the two launches of the U.S. X-37B space plane, a number of news stories this fall (here and here) have speculated about how quickly China might catch up with the U.S. by developing its own “Shenlong” space plane. Read More
X-37B Space Plane: Still in Search of a Mission
November 29th, 2012
On December 11, United Launch Alliance is scheduled to launch its X-37B prototype space plane for the Air Force from Cape Canaveral for the third time. Its mission, however, still remains a mystery. Read More
UCS Satelllite Database Update: Passing the 1,000 Mark
October 4th, 2012
We have hit a milestone with the new version of the UCS Satellite Database. By our count, including launches through July 31, 2012, there are currently 1016 actively operating satellites, for the first time breaking the 1,000 mark. Read More
New NRC Boost-Phase Missile Defense Report Released
September 12th, 2012
Yesterday, the National Research Council (NRC) released a hefty report “Making Sense of Ballistic Missile Defense: An Assessment of Concepts and Systems for U.S. Boost-Phase Missile Defense in Comparison to Other Alternatives.” We are still sifting through it and will be posting more on the subject in the coming weeks. Read More
Update of UCS Satellite Database
June 18th, 2012
A new version of the UCS satellite database has been released, including launches and de-orbits through April 1, 2012. We added 13 satellites and removed 8, and the current count of active satellites is now 999.
February 13, 2012 marked the inaugural flight of the new European Vega launcher, which is optimized to launch small satellites into low earth orbits. Read More
