24 - Space-Library

past three years, Carlson said. In that time, the accuracy of
is targetable," he said.
detection has gone from multiple miles to meters. "That means it
http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20110915/AGENCY01/109150307/
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Sept. 16, 2011 www.defense.gov/news/ By Karen Parrish American Forces Press Service
NRO は 米 国 のスパイ 衛 星 の 先 端 技 術 を 維 持
NRO Maintains Nation’s Intel Satellite Edge
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2011 – The National Reconnaissance
Office is 50 years old this month, but its mission of designing,
building, launching and maintaining America’s intelligence
satellites is always future focused, its chief said yesterday.
Bruce A. Carlson, a retired Air Force general and NRO’s director,
told defense reporters here the office’s current missions range
from identifying roadside bombs in Afghanistan to tracking
activities in China and North Korea.
Carlson noted. “That’s why we have a space protection
program,” he said. China is a focus for his organization’s
surveillance efforts, as is North Korea, Carlson said. “I remain
concerned about [China’s] intent and exactly what it is that I do
not know,” he said. North Korea also works “really hard to
deceive us,” Carlson noted. “We work really hard to make sure
we don’t let them deceive us. So it’s sort of a cat-and-mouse
game. It’s very serious for us.” The NRO’s three main lines of
business are imaging, signals collection and communications, the
director said. The science and technology, or developmental and
demonstration program, underlies all three, he added. “We have a
very active program to do our own technology,” Carlson said.
Carson
The National Reconnaissance Office has launched six satellites
in seven months, “the best we’ve done in about 25 years,” the
director said. As recently as two years ago, more than 30
percent of the organization’s programs were rated yellow or red
for improper performance. All the NRO’s major system
acquisition programs are now in the green -- delivering on
schedule, on contract and on price, Carlson said. Carlson said
NRO’s mission is getting more challenging because space is
becoming increasingly congested where the satellites work.
“Other countries are launching a lot of stuff, and it’s becoming
more competitive,” he said. “We all have to operate in the same
space.” And it’s no secret the Chinese are becoming more
active in space, the director added. “That concerns us because
we’re not absolutely sure of their intent,” he said. NRO and Air
Force Space Command have a joint space protection program,
Carlson said, which is the “ace in the hole” should “somebody
try to do something.” “ We also use the space protection
program to work around the congestion problem … make sure
we don’t run into something else up there,” he said. China and
Russia both contend with the United States for room in space,
Carlson said. In satellite surveillance as with night fighting, deep
strike capabilities and special operations expertise, “they have to
focus on our strengths,” the director said. China and Russia
don’t try to compete with U.S. capabilities, but to counter them,
“We’re the only organization in the government that does space
reconnaissance … and that takes some unique technologies.”
NRO partners with the National Laboratories and the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency in developing new
capabilities, but some 60 percent of the equipment on the six
recently launched satellites was developed in-house, he said.
Several other small satellites -- less than about 1,000 pounds --
are now in orbit demonstrating new technologies that NRO will
roll into its existing surveillance systems, the director said. For
imaging reconnaissance, the NRO seeks to examine as many
parts of the spectrum with as many instruments as possible, he
said. The goal is to “do sensing … in the daytime, at night, in bad
weather, good weather … and sandstorms,” he said. Some of the
signals collection satellites are “remarkably old,” he said. “Those
satellites were designed to collect Soviet long-haul
communications that dealt with the Cold War,” he said. “Now
they’re collecting phone calls or push-to-talk radio signals out
of the war zone.” NRO uses its communications satellites to
relay image or signals data around the world and down to the
ground for processing, then shunt the results back to where
they’re needed, Carlson said. “Processing takes a lot of energy
and [computer] capacity,” he said. “We’ve got to do that on the
ground; we can’t afford to do it in space.” NRO’s ability to fuse
various streams of intelligence data -- including image, signals
and geolocation -- into a single, usable result has increased by
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