Keynote address begins Space Mobility Conference & Expo

By Shane Klestinski, Associate Editor

 

The third Space Mobility Conference & Expo opened with a keynote address from retired Space Force Lt. Gen. John Shaw, former deputy commander for U.S. Space Command, in Orlando, Florida, Jan. 27.

 

At the start of his address, “Assured Access and Superiority: The Future of Space Mobility and National Security,” Shaw gave a brief history lesson that has led to what he called the “Third Space Age,” which he said described the most recent space exploration efforts.

 

Shaw said the First Space Age, based in “fighting a Cold War adversary on ideological grounds,” mainly focused on national security concerns involving the Soviet Union. The Second Space Age saw significant changes, when according to Shaw, “our adversaries were now our buddies,” as American and Russian efforts became coordinated in the post-Cold War world.

 

“We actually sent astronauts to the former Soviet space station, we ended up [operating] the International Space Station together, and we started integrating our capabilities,” Shaw said. “We were launching astronauts on Soyuz spacecraft, and we were using a lot of Russian technology. GPS became a household term in the Second Space Age and really set a path for how we leverage space technology today.”

 

Shaw said the “most amazing thing in the Second Space Age,” was that operations in the space domain were not under threat. He explained that it left a legacy in how systems were designed, that is, to not necessarily be responsive to threats.

 

Shaw described the Third Space Age as beginning around 2015 when SpaceX landed its first booster core in Florida and filed with the Federal Communications Commission for a license to operate Starlink, which has made dramatic changes in how many in the space industry view architectures in space. Shaw included a Venn diagram in his presentation that displayed overlapping circles representing major activities involved in the current space age: civil, commercial and national security.

 

“From a national security perspective, it was 2015 when our national leadership first started talking about space as a warfighting domain – publicly,” Shaw said. “Many of us [in the military] were talking about it as a warfighting domain for years, maybe even a couple decades earlier, but it became public and our national security efforts for space pivoted, which led us to the U.S. Space Force. We had to acknowledge there were threats, and now we’re responding to them.”

 

Space capabilities are under threat in “Space 3.0,” according to Shaw, because joint warfighters, as well as American society, are heavily reliant on them and will be more so in the future.

 

A proposition Shaw offered his audience was that space launch advances in the Third Space Age so far, are just a “special case” in Third Space Age mobility, which will evolve into a broader “general case” of responsiveness, reusability and servicing/logistics what will encompass the entire domain and enable dynamic space operations.

 

He emphasized that dynamic space operations are “not positional space operations.” While space assets in orbit constantly move at approximately 17,000 miles per hour, they are still “positional” in holding their orbit because their future location is generally predictable, barring any maneuvering. In fact, efforts to maneuver usually serve to maintain the same, consistent orbit.

 

“When you stay in orbit, you have to think of that, at least in warfighting terms, as ‘positional operations,’” Shaw said. “That’s one reason why our Second Space Age architectures have been seen to be vulnerable. We refer to them as ‘fat, juicy targets in geosynchronous orbit.’”

 

He clarified that dynamic space operations seek to change that paradigm, especially for certain platforms “where we want to have initiative and surprise,” keep them from becoming targets, and possess offensive capabilities against potential adversaries in space. Positional assets can’t offer those options, and the solution requires space mobility to the point where warfighters can employ those capabilities. Shaw explained that the model of the Third Space Age involves responsiveness, reusability and leveraging logistics to be more capable.

 

“Only when we have an on-orbit logistics infrastructure, will we really free up the design of how we do satellites and constellations and capabilities to leverage [those assets] to do things that we’re not even imagining right now,” Shaw said.

 

Near the end of his keynote, Shaw discussed what he considered “myths regarding dynamic space ops, sustained maneuver and on-orbit servicing:”

 

1) Warfighters are advocating for sustained space maneuver (SSM) for most/all platforms/constellations. (Shaw emphasized that SSM is only for a subset of assets with the mission of being dynamic and not positional.)

 

2) On-orbit servicing for SSM is about getting warfighters efficiency and lifetime extension for a satellite’s capabilities. (Shaw cited the analogy that F/A-18 Hornets don’t refuel in the air to minimize wear-and-tear on the landing gear. It’s done to increase the combat capability of the platform, especially in the face of threats that require operating at a high tempo.)

 

3) We need to rely on commercial solutions to get warfighters what they need. (Shaw said that certain business cases don’t always provide the solutions for military applications in space operations, and that “we can’t link where those linkages don’t exist, or it’s going to slow us down and give us the wrong answers.”)

 

4) The commercial and civil sectors won’t benefit from a warfighter-focused, on-orbit logistics architecture and infrastructure. (Coaling stations in the age of steamships positioned around the world refueled military ships, allowing countries to project power. Those countries’ merchant vessels came to benefit from access to those coaling stations, and according to Shaw, an on-orbit equivalent could eventually bolster commercial/civil space operations.)

 

5) Warfighters need to wait for SSM and on-orbit logistics – it’s still too early. (Today, adversaries are already pursing SSM and on-orbit logistics. Shaw said that allowing them to get an edge in these areas would put American space interests “in a dangerous disadvantage… there is a cost to being second, even if you develop that same capability.”)

 

Shaw closed his keynote by emphasizing the need to focus on satisfying warfighter requirements.

 

“Let’s not think about what’s efficient or cost-effective,” Shaw said. “Think about the warfighter’s needs. Let those be the key driver, and that will raise all the boats in what we can do with on-orbit space mobility.”