Armed Forces News

The Air Force took ownership of the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) – the most sophisticated piece of equipment of its kind – from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Oct. 18. Air Force Space Command is deploying the telescope on a New Mexico mountaintop. From there, it will be able incorporate an array of camera and image-analysis sensors to track and identify satellites and space junk as far away as 22,300 miles above the Earth. The Air Force will operate the telescope in cooperation with the Australian government.