Tag: space force

Veteran Space Operator Alleges Secret Control System Undermines Space Command and is Possibly Connected to UFOs

A veteran U.S. space operator has publicly alleged that a concealed ‘security control system’ within America’s national-security space enterprise is undermining commanders, obstructing routine tracking of objects in orbit, and, in some cases, diverting data away from the very commands responsible for defending the nation.

In a LinkedIn statement on 29 September 2025, Jim Shell alleged that a secret system has supplanted the ‘direction and authority’ of the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command. Shell is a former ‘Chief Scientist’ by duty title at the Space Innovation and Development Center under Air Force Space Command. 

In his statement, Shell states he has high confidence that the system is:

  • Supplanting the authority of Space Force and Space Command
  • Causing unauthorised interference with the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) mission – the global effort to detect, track and characterise satellites, debris, and other orbital objects
  • Demonstrating the potential to interfere with U.S. Northern Command’s ability to protect the homeland
  • Suppressing intelligence about Russian and Chinese on-orbit activities
  • Enforcing unpublished security rules that have led to Guardians – service members with the Space Force – being removed, threatened with court martial, and branded ‘problematic,’ while their commanders were never told the basis for the charges.

He adds that he has medium confidence in two further claims: that funds have been misappropriated, and that the system connects to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) activity – this raises the possibility that anomalous orbital detections are removed from the standard catalogue before they reach operational commanders.

Shell links today’s problems to a 2018 classification policy; however, Liberation Times understands the system’s unpublished rules predate 2018.

The 2018 policy was co-signed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) – which runs America’s spy satellites – and U.S. Strategic Command, which oversaw space operations before the creation of the U.S. Space Force and Space Command in 2019.

When the U.S. Space Command was re-established in 2019, following its inactivation in 2002, it adopted the policy, according to Shell.

Shell argues neither NRO nor U.S. Strategic Command had proper authority to impose such sweeping changes, yet the unpublished rules stemming from that policy continue to be enforced.

Alarmingly, according to Shell, attempts by senior officials to change the policy have repeatedly failed.

He points to an alleged confrontation on 27 May 2021, when the Vice Chief of Space Operations sought to push through changes but was blocked. Based on the date and role, this likely refers to General David Thompson, who held that post at the time.

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Resolute Space 2025: How the U.S. Space Force is Arming for Invisible Wars in the Stars

At Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, the U.S. Space Force launched its most ambitious training operation to date in July 2025.

Over 700 personnel, dubbed Guardians, teamed up with troops from allied nations to simulate battles in the vast emptiness above Earth.

This event, known as Resolute Space 2025, is aimed at preventing the rising danger of invisible assaults that could cripple global communications without firing a single shot.

The exercise began on July 8 and unfolded across multiple time zones, spanning roughly 50 million square miles. It integrated forces from about a dozen countries, including partners in Asia, Europe, and Australia, to practice seamless coordination.

The goal was to sharpen responses to disruptions in a chaotic setting, blending real-world assets with digital replicas for maximum authenticity.

In the scenarios, a designated aggressor group mimicked hostile nations by unleashing non-kinetic strikes on satellite networks. These included bursts of electronic static to drown out signals, sneaky hacks to spoof data feeds, and maneuvers to nudge orbits off course.

Defending teams raced to pinpoint the sources, restore functionality, and adapt tactics amid the fog of simulated chaos.

Orbital space previously served as a peaceful domain for navigation aids, intelligence gathering, and routine links between forces.

That illusion has shattered as countries have begun to explore space weaponry which could turn satellites into prime targets. Military planners now view the cosmos as a domain ripe for sabotage.

Adversaries like China and Russia have poured resources into tools that threaten U.S. assets without leaving debris trails. By mid-2025, China executed dozens of orbital missions, deploying over a hundred new objects to test grappling tech and signal blockers.

Russia, meanwhile, has experimented with nuclear options and co-orbital chasers that could shadow or disable enemy craft, fueling fears of rapid escalation.

Experts note these developments proceed at an alarming speed, outpacing Western defenses and risking a cascade of satellite failures.

The Space Force, established just six years prior, is exploring tactics to navigate these new challenges. Exercises like Resolute Space 2025 enhance the U.S.’s capabilities through flexible doctrines and cross-service teamwork necessarily to counter such evolving threats.

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“Harsh Measures”? – President Trump Announces Space Command Will Move From Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama

Last month, President Donald Trump took to Truth to announce “harsh measures” in response to the persecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is serving a nine-year sentence in Colorado prison for making a forensic image of voting systems in her custody prior to a “Trusted Build” conducted by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.

In his post to Truth Social, President Trump called Peters “a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians” and claiming that she did nothing wrong “except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election.”

According to Ashe Epp of the Colorado Free Press, Space Command employed 1,700 people in Colorado Springs and contributed around $1 billion annually to the local economy via direct spending, employee salaries, and patronage of local businesses by Space Command employees.

Colorado Springs is home to over 150 space, aerospace, and defense companies and is home to five major military installations with a significant Department of Defense presence, however, Huntsville, too, has a large presence surrounding the Redstone Arsenal, which serves as a major center for missile, rocket, and space systems development and testing, according to Army Technology.

“Rocket City” is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, and several other military industrial complex companies.

According to the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the aerospace and defense industry accounts for 44% of the total economy with 111,000 employees in the region.

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The military’s squad of satellite trackers is now routinely going on alert

If it seems like there’s a satellite launch almost every day, the numbers will back you up.

The US Space Force’s Mission Delta 2 is a unit that reports to Space Operations Command, with the job of sorting out the nearly 50,000 trackable objects humans have launched into orbit.

Dozens of satellites are being launched each week, primarily by SpaceX to continue deploying the Starlink broadband network. The US military has advance notice of these launches—most of them originate from Space Force property—and knows exactly where they’re going and what they’re doing.

That’s usually not the case when China or Russia (and occasionally Iran or North Korea) launches something into orbit. With rare exceptions, like human spaceflight missions, Chinese and Russian officials don’t publish any specifics about what their rockets are carrying or what altitude they’re going to.

That creates a problem for military operators tasked with monitoring traffic in orbit and breeds anxiety among US forces responsible for making sure potential adversaries don’t gain an edge in space. Will this launch deploy something that can destroy or disable a US satellite? Will this new satellite have a new capability to surveil allied forces on the ground or at sea?

Of course, this is precisely the point of keeping launch details under wraps. The US government doesn’t publish orbital data on its most sensitive satellites, such as spy craft collecting intelligence on foreign governments.

But you can’t hide in low-Earth orbit, a region extending hundreds of miles into space. Col. Raj Agrawal, who commanded Mission Delta 2 until earlier this month, knows this all too well. Agrawal handed over command to Col. Barry Croker as planned after a two-year tour of duty at Mission Delta 2.

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US Space Force Requests $277M for MILNET, Halts Tranche 3 of Transport Layer

The U.S. Space Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request provides $277 million for the MILNET proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation and halts funding for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 3, Transport Layer effort for advanced LEO communications satellites.

The Space Force $277 million request combines two program elements and derives from a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) classified MILNET effort, based on SpaceX‘s Starshield. The Department of the Air Force, which is conducting an Analysis of Alternatives on future satellite communications, intends MILNET to be a “plug and play” architecture that is not SpaceX-reliant.

“In the FY 26 budget we learned DoD is halting the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 3, Transport Layer and that work which has been going on for several years and had robust competition and open standards has been replaced by something called MILNET, which is being sole sourced to SpaceX,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, said at a Thursday hearing on the Department of the Air Force’s fiscal 2026 funding request.

“No competition, no open architecture, no leveraging of dynamic space ecosystem,” Coons said of MILNET.

Coons then asked Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, “Doesn’t handing this to SpaceX make us dependent on their proprietary technology and avoid the very positive benefits of competition and open architecture?

“Tranche 2 is still funded in the budget submission, including the Transport Layer, so we’re looking forward to delivery of that system over the next handful of years,” Meink responded. “As we go forward, MILNET, the term, should not be taken as just a system. How we field that going forward is something that’s still under consideration, and we will look at the acquisition of that.”

Coons then said that he would “deeply appreciate a classified briefing” from Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman “on exactly where this [MILNET] is going and why this particular decision was made.”

SDA has extensively publicized the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), including the communications and missile warning satellite constellations.

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Space Force Col. Susan Meyers Relieved Of Command After Criticizing Vance Greenland Visit – Should Be Courtmartialed

The senior Space Force officer Col Susan Meyers, who was relieved of command after the Vice President’s visit to Greenland, committed severe insubordination of the Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, and should be courtmartialed in our opinion.

Until we start making examples of these seditious individuals, with real consequences, this will keep happening.

Col. Susan Meyers, the commander of the 821st Space Base Group who also oversees the Pentagon’s northernmost military base, sent a March 31 message to all personnel at Pituffik seemingly aimed at generating unity among the airmen and Guardians, as well as the Canadians, Danes and Greenlanders who work there, following Vance’s appearance. She wrote that she “spent the weekend thinking about Friday’s visit — the actions taken, the words spoken, and how it must have affected each of you,” reported Military.com

“I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the U.S. administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,” Meyers wrote in the email, which was communicated to Military.com.

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In a rare disclosure, the Pentagon provides an update on the X-37B spaceplane

After more than nine months in an unusual, highly elliptical orbit, the US military’s X-37B spaceplane will soon begin dipping its wings into Earth’s atmosphere to lower its altitude before eventually coming back to Earth for a runway landing, the Space Force said Thursday.

The aerobraking maneuvers will use a series of passes through the uppermost fringes of the atmosphere to gradually reduce its speed with aerodynamic drag while expending minimal fuel. In orbital mechanics, this reduction in velocity will bring the apogee, or high point, of the X-37B’s orbit closer to Earth.

Bleeding energy

The Space Force called the aerobraking a “novel space maneuver” and said its purpose was to allow the X-37B to “safely dispose of its service module components in accordance with recognized standards for space debris mitigation.”

While the reusable Boeing-built X-37B spaceplane is designed to land like an aircraft on a runway, the service module, mounted to the rear of the vehicle, carries additional payloads. At the end of the mission, the X-37B jettisons the disposable service module before reentry. The Space Force doesn’t want this section of the spacecraft to remain in its current high-altitude orbit and become a piece of space junk.

“Once the aerobrake maneuver is complete, the X-37B will resume its test and experimentation objectives until they are accomplished, at which time the vehicle will deorbit and execute a safe return as it has during its six previous missions,” the Space Force said.

The Space Force has identified mobility in orbit as a key focus for its next-generation space missions. This would allow satellites to more freely move between altitudes and orbital inclinations than they can today. Commanders don’t want a spacecraft’s movements to be constrained by the amount of fuel it carries, allowing satellites to “maneuver without regret.”

Space Force leaders have discussed in-orbit refueling, more efficient propulsion technologies, and other ways to achieve this end. Aerobraking is another way to lower a spacecraft’s orbit without using precious propellant.

“This first-of-a-kind maneuver from the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain,” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force’s chief of space operations.

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Industry ‘hamstrung’ by Space Force-intel community’s turf war

The space industry is waiting for the Space Force and intelligence community to come to an agreement over buying commercial satellite imagery and related analysis—a fight, some say, that is preventing troops from making the fullest use of orbital capabilities. 

Currently, the National Reconnaissance Office is in charge of buying intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance imagery from commercial space providers, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in charge of purchasing analytic products. But in the five years since the Space Force was created, the young service has increasingly pushed for funds and leeway to work directly with commercial firms, arguing that it can more quickly get important information to combatant commands.

Earlier this year, Space Force launched a $40 million pilot program to show just how fast it could move information and insights from orbiting sensors to troops on ground. It began soliciting bids for “tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking,” or TacSRT, through a “marketplace,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters last month. 

“What TacSRT is doing with this pilot in particular is: we simply ask a question into the marketplace: ‘Hey, what generally does it look like around Air Base 201? Are there any items of interest, trucks, that are massing? Is there a huge parking lot? Do we see people milling around?’ We simply ask the question. And commercial industry provides us products that try to help us answer the question,” he said.

Saltzman has emphasized that the pilot program buys analysis based on imagery but not images themselves, carefully skirting NRO’s territory.  

Executives with commercial space companies that have participated in the pilot’s marketplace call it revolutionary. Some jobs have moved from a work statement announcement to the start of a mission in as little as 24 to 72 hours. 

But these executives say that unless TacSRT gets more funding, and the intel community gives more leeway to the Space Force, commercial companies and combatant commands could suffer. 

Under the current NGA-centric process, it can take weeks for military analysts in a relatively quiet command—i.e., anywhere that’s not China, Ukraine, or the Middle East—to hear back on a request for satellite imagery, said Joe Morrison, the vice president of remote sensing at Umbra, which operates a synthetic aperture radar constellation and provides data to analytics firms in the TacSRT program. 

Morrison said the current system was designed to manage requests for a scarce number of very-high-quality, very-much-in-demand “national assets”—not to draw efficiently on commercial offerings to make sure all needs are met in timely fashion. He said this has discouraged analysts from even putting in a request for imagery or insights, which has artificially depressed apparent demand for them and has “hamstrung” Umbra’s ability to demonstrate its utility.

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Space Force Touts Plans for Part-Time Service, Even as Opposition and Space National Guard Proposal Loom

Gen. Chance Saltzman, the top military leader of the Space Force, highlighted five former Air Force reservists during a keynote speech at an annual conference this week, revealing they were among the first service members to transfer into jobs in his service.

For now, the initiative allowing such reservists to transfer to the Space Force is accepting only those who are willing to serve full time as Guardians on active duty. The service is hoping to eventually allow part-time Space Force service as an option to those in the Air Force Reserve.

But many of the basic details of a part-time model — most notably, making sure newly transferred Guardians would get paid — still need to be worked out, Saltzman said during an Air and Space Forces Association conference in the Washington, D.C., area. The effort also comes amid a national debate over a potential alternative, the creation of a Space National Guard manned by part-time troops.

“We do not want to hurt anybody in the transition period,” Saltzman said. “That is first and foremost in all our minds. And when I say hurt, I mean when you cross over, you don’t get paid — that’s a problem. Our databases for the Space Force don’t include how you bill part-time hours. That’s done over in the Air Force. We need to migrate those capabilities over so that we can manage our force from a part-time standpoint.”

In a separate conference discussion with reporters Tuesday, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna told Military.com that the service wants the new part-time model to be a unique experience and one that doesn’t mirror the existing reserve system.

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U.S. To Track Moving Air And Ground Targets Via Space By 2030, But Aircraft Will Still Play A Part

The U.S. Space Force second-in-command has provided updates on plans for the service’s introduction of space-based ground moving-target indicator and air moving-target indicator (GMTI/AMTI) capabilities. Also discussed was the U.S. military’s need for a layered surveillance network, including to deal with the expanding breadth of enemy ‘kill webs,’ something which TWZ has discussed in the depth in the past.

Speaking today at the annual Defense News Conference in Arlington, Virginia, Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the Vice Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force (USSF), said that the first parts of a satellite-based GMTI/AMTI capability should start coming online in “probably the early 2030s.”

Importantly, however, Gen. Guetlein said that he expects the U.S. military’s future surveillance network to involve multiple assets, both in the atmosphere and in space. “I see it always being a layered set of capabilities to increase survivability, first and foremost,” he said.

While a layered surveillance network — one including space-based assets, alongside crewed aircraft, drones, and potentially other platforms — has been discussed for some time now, it was only last month that the design baseline for Space Force’s new satellite system was certified, meaning that it can now progress into the formal development phase.

In the past there have also been repeated suggestions that space-based surveillance assets would increasingly take over from the aircraft that have traditionally undertaken surveillance of targets on the ground, at sea, and in the air. In particular, satellite-based surveillance assets offer the advantages of greater persistence and — at least in the past — enhanced survivability. It is also worth noting that the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is reportedly acquiring a constellation of hundreds of intelligence-gathering satellites from SpaceX, with a specific focus on tracking targets down below in support of ground operations. Its relationship to the USSF program is unclear, but there is certainly some crossover regarding capabilities.

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