High Frontier: The U. S. Air Force and the Military Space Program - MOL, Dyna-Soar, Nuclear Detection, Missile Warning, Anti-Satellite, SDI, BMD, Launch Operations, Desert Storm

This unique Air Force report covers the history of the military space program from the first studies after World War II through the modern era. Contents: I. Military Space Missions Defined * Early Aerial Reconnaissance * Military Space Missions Identified, Satellite Work Begun * Forging a National Space Policy * Organizing America's Space Effort * Project CORONA * The National Reconnaissance Office * II. Manned Military Space Flight * The X-20 Dyna-Soar * The Manned Orbiting Laboratory * Military Space Shuttle Plans and Operations * III. Military Space Operations, 1958-1991 * Missile Early Warning - MIDAS to DSP * The SPADATS/SSN Tracking Network * Nuclear Detection - Vela Hotel to IONDS * Communication Satellites - IDCSP to Milstar * Meteorological Satellites - DMSP * Navigation Satellites - The Navstar Global Positioning System * Anti-Satellite Systems - SAINT, 437, and the F-15 ASAT * The Strategic Defense Initiative * IV. Launch Operations, Ground Control, Organization and Management * The Founding of Space Command * V. Desert Storm, the Air Force and the Military Space Program in a Changing World.

The United States military space program began at the end of World War II when a few people realized that space flight was now achievable and could be employed to military advantage. Science and technology in the form of advanced radar, jet propulsion, ballistic rockets such as the V-2, and nuclear energy had dramatically altered the nature of war. Army Air Forces Commanding General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold wrote in November 1945 that a space ship "is all but practicable today" and could be built "within the foreseeable future." The following month the Air Force Scientific Advisory Group concluded that long-range rockets were technically feasible and that satellites were a "definite possibility." The U.S. Navy also expressed interest in space flight. In November 1945 the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics produced a satellite report, and, on March 7, 1946 proposed an interservice space program. The idea was presented to the joint Army-Navy Aeronautical Board on April 9. Major General Curtis E. LeMay, the Director of Research and Development for the Army Air Forces, however, viewed space operations as an exclusive Air Force domain, and he ordered an independent study.