Iran, Intransigent and Triumphant

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division stands in front of an Iranian rocket carrying a satellite in an undisclosed site believed to be in Iran’s Semnan province, on April 22, 2020. (Sepahnews via AP)

"The intended research objectives of this launch were achieved. this was done as a preliminary launch ... God willing, we will have an operational launch soon."

"By developing our capacity to launch satellites, in the near future satellites with a wide range of applications ... will be placed into orbit."

Ahmad Hosseini, spokesman, Iranian Space Agency

 

"These activities are all the more regrettable as they come at a time when we are making progress in the nuclear negotiations in Vienna.".

"We call on Iran not to launch further ballistic missiles designed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons, including space launchers."

French foreign ministry

Iranian satellite carrier rocket “Simorgh” is launched in an unknown location in Iran, in this picture obtained on December 30, 2021. Ministry of Defense of Iran/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

France's plea to the Iranian Ayatollas and the IRCG will most certainly not persuade the Islamist theocracy to abandon their ambitious plans for the future of the Islamic Republic to mark out its territory in space, to launch satellites to look down on what its challengers are up to, to assess the military preparedness of its enemies, to threaten those whom Iran feels has no right to their very existence in a geographic area hostile to the presence of the territorial integrity of a non-Muslim country.

Harsh sanctions imposed on Iran for its well-known plans to achieve success in nuclear weaponry to accompany its ever-evolving arsenal of technically advanced ballistic missiles appear to have done nothing to extinguish its passion to be armed with the most fearsome of mass weaponry. Iran has amply demonstrated it has the wherewithal to supply its military proxies in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Gaza with weapons, but remains shy of finances to ensure its own population can live with ample fuel and food.

Like North Korea, Iran has its priorities and fending for its peoples' comfort in food security is not one of them. Their ambitions remain set on securing weapons of mass destruction to instill fear in the minds of their adversaries, and to gain respect-through-intimidation to ensure that others think twice before provoking their ire by criticism and challenges. Like North Korea, which has exchanged formulas, methodology and technicians with Iran, formal discussions brought to a bargaining table by the international community to persuade Iran to surrender its nuclear ambitions are destined to fail.

Three 'research' devices were launched into space with the use of a satellite launch from the Imam Khomeini Space Center in Northern Iran at dawn on Thursday. During the time of the original 2015 nuclear agreement meant to slow down Iran's nuclear program where it promised to stop enriching uranium to a grade level useful for the creation of a nuclear device, Iran prosecuted conflict in Yemen and in Syria, threatened Arab Sunni Muslim nations, vowed to eliminate Israel, provided Hezbollah and Hamas and the Houthis with advanced rocketry, and sneered at the gullibility of the West.

Indirect U.S.0Iran talks on the nuclear issue are ongoing, but even the most oblivious optimist cannot believe that anything positive can be achieved, other than buy Iran more time to perfect its rocketry and approach nuclear bomb technology to secure an arsenal of their own. Iranian state television showed footage of the firing of the launch vehicle, a Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier rocket which launched the three research devices at an altitude of 470 km and a speed of 7,350 meters per second.

Image taken from footage aired by Iranian state television shows a rocket that Iran announced it launched on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021. (Iranian state television via AP)

 

 

Zealous Musk and Jealous Beijing -- Sharing Space In Space?

 

The image of Musk and his Chinese doppelganger was posted beneath a tweet from Musk claiming that he will pay 11 billion USD in taxes this year.

Elon Musk enjoys great popularity among young Chinese, in China. He has also invested a great deal in China. Unfortunately, the great admiration he enjoys as a role model for innovative, bold gestures and a startling imagination with an enduring belief that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that he cannot achieve on the strength of the force of his character, his vision and enterprise, is not universally beloved in China. Oh, the Chinese Communist Party respects his enterprise and ability to make money for himself and his enterprises, but they have certain reservations about anyone -- just ask Jack Ma -- who thinks too big for their britches.

And no one individual can possibly challenge the supremacy of the Chinese State and its enterprises. Including Beijing's claim to shooting for the stars. Starting modestly with a space station of its own. So when a world-class entrepreneur like Elon Musk displays a gusto for outmaneuvering and out-satelliting the most technically advanced, ardent of nations in space exploration he was guaranteed to raise the hackles of the CCP. All the more so that he is a certified American strategist-capitalist-innovator.

Not that this far-reaching technical-whizz-kid hasn't raised the hackles of other non-state groups, such as scientists in the field of astronomy and astro-physics who depend on their ability to read the stars, as it were, though the grace of dark skies enabling powerful telescopes to reach far into the deepest recesses of the universe, back in time and space to analyze the beginning of all that exists, but will be hampered by Musk's plans to string satellites in a wide net impeding the course of astronomical investigation by lighting up the skies.

Now, however, Beijing accuses Elon Musk of "space warfare" in close encounters of a different kind, where some satellites launched as part of his groundbreaking global internet initiative experienced a near-miss with China's recently-launched space station. Starlink Internet Services, a division of the Musk Space-X aerospace company, saw some of its satellites involved in two "close encounters" with China's space station in July and October.

China subsequently submitted a document to the United Nations apace agency: "For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control", China reported on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Now that's awfully serious; it's obvious that a collision of any dimension has the potential to end badly. Remember not so long ago when China insisted it had the right to send up rockets directed to destroy some of its old space junk still in circulation?

And the United States and European Space Agency were concerned over the detritus not only having the potential to intersect with their communication satellites but their space missions as well, including the international space station, where astronauts were actually forced to take evasive action when a piece of a destroyed Chinese weather satellite was headed toward it?

 

The ISS is a big target for space debris, but it's no sitting duck   NASA

.China launched Tianhe, the largest of its three modules which will make up its space station, in April. The end of 2022 will see the completion of the space station following four crewed missions meant to build on the initial module. Scientists urge space-travelling governments to share data to reduce risk of catastrophic space collisions in view of close to 30,000 satellites and other debris orbiting Earth. Close to 1,900 satellites have been deployed by Space X alone in service to its Starlink broadband network, meant to blanket the world with universal internet coverage.

According to China's state-operated tabloid Global Times, the satellites, 42,000 thousand of which Musk plans to orbit could be "used to detect China's space perception capabilities and test whether China can accurately grasp their actions". The paper wrote: "The aerospace industry is currently concerned about the military application of Starlink satellite because after the deployment of more than 40,000 satellites, the normal launch of other countries will be affected."

Musk may just run into problems making his world-wide high-speed internet connectivity viable; planning to ask China for permission to build antenna dishes or ground links on its territory to send and receive data from the Starlink spacecraft initially, China saw that plan as interfering with its censored internet network, the "Great Firewall", blocking access to websites like google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and international media. How else might it succeed in ensuring its 1.4 billion population is shielded from criticism against its communist leaders?

The Chinese division of Tesla last month, also owned by Musk, announced that Starlink would not launch services in China. All Tesla cars and charging stations would use network services provided by Chinese operators with all data maintained within the country. This, the result of China forcing foreign companies to retain all records collected from Chinese consumers within the country. Tesla in China employs quite a lot of Chinese workers.

 

"What will happen to Tesla in China, if some day Starlink's low-orbit satellites collide with our country's low-orbit satellites or other spacecraft", worried one Chinese, writing on Weibo. What, indeed?! After all, China appears to feel entitled to viewing space as its personal jurisdiction and it is very jealous of its reputation and sovereignty. And Musk feels that nothing is beyond his enterprising spirit to accomplish as a private, non-state investor in space.

 

Collecting Junk In Space

"Collision risks from on-or-hit debris is of significant importance, especially given the growth potential for smaller spacecraft."
"Given the increased interest in the exploitation and exploration of space there is an opportunity for Canadians to take a leadership role in keeping space safe for all, and for Canadian industry to reap the economic benefits that will come with finding effective and cost-efficient solutions to the problem of spaced debris."
Dan Le Bouthillier, spokesman, Department of National Defence (DND)

"While 'space debris' technically includes asteroids, comets and meteoroids, this challenge refers specifically to orbit debris, space junk, space waste, space trash, space litter or space garbage, as well as fragments from their disintegration and collisions. Space surveillance networks regularly track about 22,300 debris objects in earth orbits, totaling more than 8,400 tonnes, which includes 1,950 operational satellites. As of January 2019, the total number of debris objects that are estimated by statistical models to be in earth orbits are 34,000 (greater than 10 cm); 900,000 objects (1 cm to 10 cm); and 128 million objects (1 mm to 1 cm)."
"When in Earth orbits, space debris pose a risk of collision with space vehicles, humans, and even with other debris. The hazards posed by debris collisions include erosion to hulls, solar panels and optics; fragmentation leading to rapid increases in the total population of space debris; total loss of a vehicle and/or an asset; and major injury and/or loss of human life. Space debris will grow as the number of human-made objects in Earth orbits increase over time."
"There are no operational debris removal capabilities in use, globally, and existing prototypes lack important capabilities and have proven ineffective. For instance, there is a need to capture and deorbit multiple pieces of debris per clean-up effort or the capability becomes extremely expensive; as well, capabilities are needed to track and capture space debris smaller than 10cm or larger than the capturing vehicle (e.g., rocket bodies)."

From invitation to tender for tracking "space junk" by DND 

The Canadian Defence Department is calling on scientists to use their technical expertise and creative intelligence to arrive at a possible system whereby space junk orbiting Earth can be collected as waste, and disposed of, ridding the inner atmosphere of the presence and the potential of impact accidents with satellites and other types of operational spacecraft. Recommendations and plans for tackling space junk and "de-orbiting" the debris have been invited and DND is awaiting associated proposals by mid-August.

"Debris objects" in orbit is estimated to total roughly 129 million, including 34,000 objects larger than 10 cm in size; 900,000 of one cm to 10 cm; and 128 million objects one mm to one cm, according to DND calculations. Decades of space travel and operations are responsible for having created the debris. Like Mount Everest and the countless expeditions that have been launched to summit the world's highest peak, the issue of garbage strewn everywhere on the mountain is beyond vexing.

The total number of "debris objects" in orbit is currently estimated to be around 129 million, ncluding 34,000 objects greater than 10 centimetres in size.   Getty Images illustration

In 2007, China conducted a military test for a missile to destroy one of China's satellites. The result of this military-launched experiment was that the space craft was successfully intercepted by the warhead which obliterated it and in the process an estimated 300,000 pieces of debris resulted. The space debris currently in orbit has accumulated as long as nations have launched exploratory satellites, and with a reawakened interest in space travel a vastly increased amount of "space junk" is set to arise.

Military experiments similar to China's have also been undertaken by the United States, Russia and India. Innovative, new methods to track and retrieve pieces of debris of any size, to begin to clear up the orbiting junk is imperative to safety of future space travellers and the security of satellites in orbit sending back vital signals to Earth, transmitting communications and vital data all over the world. At the present time, space surveillance networks track about 22,300 objects in Earth orbit, including 1,950 operating satellites.

The Canadian Forces' own satellite, Sapphire, used to track space objects in high Earth orbit was launched in 2013 to provide information to the Canadian Armed Forces relating to locations of foreign satellites, along with the directional presence of orbiting debris whose potential hazard to satellites and other spacecraft is worrisome.

Overview of the Sapphire system key elements (image credit: MDA)