Defending Space

The Department of Defense plans to open a space defense center in California, to support the Joint Space Operations Center. The plan is a priority for the Pentagon and they hope to have it open within six months. At a GEOINT conference in June, Deputy Defense Secretary Work spoke about the need to protect US satellites in space. The conference, sponsored by the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, focused heavily on space security.

Because so many systems on Earth are dependent on satellites, an attack in space could be devastating. Protecting space assets will be the main mission of the center. Data from satellites belong to government agencies will be collected and analyzed by the center.The center is in response to a recent uptick in space activity by China and other conutries.