Sunday, January 22, 2023

In addition to being the first Electron launch in Virginia, the rocket will carry Virginia-based HawkEye 360’s sixth cluster of three radio frequency

surveillance satellites. “This is the first time HawkEye’s flying with us, which is great to be able to fly them out of LC 2 here,” Beck said.

The scheduled launch is the first of three Electron launches carrying HawkEye satellites. Rocket Lab will deliver 15 HawkEye satellites into low-Earth orbit within two years, according to a company press release.

“It’s going to definitely expand our constellation capacity over the mid-latitudes in particular,” said Adam Bennett, senior director of product marketing at HawkEye 360.

“It’s a significant enhancement for our customers, both domestically and globally, as we collect unique forms of radio frequency geospatial data and supply that to help solve a lot of critical mission needs around the globe,” he added.

Topics: Space, Space Operations, Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Air Foce Ponders Basing Cargo in Space

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Space 4/18/2023

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2022 Space Warfighting Integration Forum (SWIF)

What is NewSpace?

NewSpace is a global industry of private companies and entrepreneurs who primarily target commercial customers, are backed by risk capital seeking a return, and seek to profit from innovative products or services developed in or for space.
NewSpace Global, newspaceglobal.com

Alt.space, NewSpace, entrepreneurial space, and other labels have been used to describe approaches to space development that different significantly from that taken by NASA and the mainstream aerospace industry.
Hobby Space, hobbyspace.com

People, businesses and organizations working to open the space frontier to human settlement through economic development.
Space Frontier Foundation, spacefrontier.org

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HawkEye 360 satellites to provide data for U.S. Space Force threat-detection system

by Sandra Erwin — January 19, 2023

Radio-frequency data from HawkEye 360 is used to geolocate sources of GPS interference. Credit: HawkEye 360

Slingshot Aerospace is developing a system for the U.S. Space Force that will use HawkEye 360’s data to identify threats to GPS signals

WASHINGTON — HawkEye 360 will provide data collected by its radio-frequency mapping satellites to Slingshot Aerospace for a threat-detection system the company is developing for the U.S. Space Force.

Under the agreement announced Jan. 19, Slingshot will use data from HawkEye 360’s satellites to identify potential jamming attacks or other threats that would interfere with GPS signals. Radio frequency interference has been a long-time problem for the military, exacerbated by the proliferation of electronic devices designed to disrupt GPS and other satellite signals.

The data from HawkEye 360’s satellites would “provide insight into how to detect early signs of nefarious RF activity,” the company said. HawkEye 360’s constellation detects, characterizes and geolocates RF signals from a broad range of electronic emitters used for communications and navigation.

In 2021 Slingshot Aerospace won a $2 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to develop an analytics tool that uses telemetry data from commercial satellites in low Earth orbit to identify potential sources of electronic interference on the ground. Slingshot’s cloud platform analyzes data from satellites in low Earth orbit to detect and locate RF interference that could endanger the safe operation of U.S. satellites.

Slingshot last year signed a similar agreement with Spire Global to use data from the company’s satellites.

“Slingshot Aerospace is excited to add HawkEye 360 to our world-class roster of data providers. This partnership allows us to significantly improve our ability to capture, process, and characterize the RF signal environment into relevant and timely insights for U.S. government space operators,” said Alonso Segura, the company’s senior director of government programs.

INTELLIGENCE MILITARY HAWKEYE 360 RF MONITORING SLINGSHOT AEROSPACE

Need some? Pop Sugar

Sharon Stone Makes Surprise Appearance on "SNL" During Sam Smith's "Gloria" Performance

January 22, 2023by SABIENNA BOWMAN

There was no shortage of guest appearances during the Aubrey Plaza–hosted Jan. 21 episode of "Saturday Night Live" — Amy Poehler, Allison Williams, Joe Biden, the Property Brothers, and Tony Hawk appeared over the course of the show — but the award for most surprising guest appearance of them all goes to Sharon Stone. Midway through the episode, Stone appeared lounging on a golden bed in front of Sam Smith and a choir as they performed the title song from Smith's new album, "Gloria." Near the end of the song, the actor sat up and dramatically stared into the camera.

At once strange and perfect, the moment may have left some "SNL" fans puzzled as to why Stone was chosen for this bit of performance art. But if you delve into her back catalog of films, it quickly becomes clear why Smith chose her. In 1999, the Golden Globe winner starred in the Sidney Lumet–directed "Gloria," which was a remake of the 1988 John Cassavetes's film of the same name. In both cases, it's a neo-noir film about the girlfriend of a criminal who finds herself taking care of a kid, despite her assertion that she has no interest in being a mother.

For their part, Smith explained the meaning behind the title of the song and album during a November 2022 appearance on BBC Two's "Michelle Visage's Rule Breakers." "There's a fighter voice in all of us, and you've just got to look after that," they said. "My album 'Gloria,' I've called it Gloria because I've called that voice inside me Gloria, it's like a voice in my head that just says, 'You can do it.' And kids have just got to access that voice and feed it."

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POP QUIZ

The Cast of I Know What You Did Last Summer Play a Scary Game of Would You Rather

In addition to her role in Smith's ethereal "Gloria" performance, Stone also popped up in a noir sketch with Plaza in which they played a mother and daughter fighting over a (much) older man. Meanwhile, for their first performance of the evening, Smith performed "Unholy" with Kim Petras, who emerged from beneath their voluminous pink dress. Check out Smith's rendition of "Unholy" below.

Image Source: Getty / NBC

DILBERT (Yesterday 21 January 2023)

Friday, January 20, 2023

NOT IN PLAIN SIGHT/AWOL or NOT??...An American "Volunteer Soldier" in The Ukraine (former Special Ops)

Hmmm suspicious plausible deniability -- A former member of the U.S. special forces was killed this week in Ukraine, American officials said Friday. They said he was not fighting in an official capacity. Daniel W. Swift is a former member of the Navy SEALs who is listed in official records as having deserted since March 2019.

Ex-SEAL dies in Ukraine; 6th known American killed in war - WNYT.com NewsChannel 13

wnyt.com › politics-election › ex-seal-die...

13 minutes ago · The Navy said Swift was killed Wednesday. At least five other Americans are known to have died fighting in Ukraine, according to State Department statements and ...

AWOL U.S Navy Seal Killed During Combat in Ukraine - Atlas News

theatlasnews.co › conflict › 2023/01/20

13 minutes ago · In an exclusive report from Time, a United States Navy official revealed an American

Navy SEAL Deserter Killed During Intense Ukraine Battle

Daniel Swift, a former American special operator, died while fighting alongside the Ukrainian military

Daniel Swift during his time as a Navy Seal

A former American special operator died early Thursday morning after being wounded days before fighting alongside the Ukrainian military during intense combat in the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut.

Daniel Swift, 35, lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and served as a Navy SEAL. The U.S. Navy told Rolling Stone on Friday that Swift is currently designated as an active deserter, and has been since March 2019.

Divorced, he leaves behind four children. Swift represents a climbing number of U.S. military veterans that have been killed over the past year while fighting Russian forces despite President Biden’s pleas for Americans to stay away. News of his death was first reported by TIME magazine.

Adam Thiemann — a former U.S. Army Ranger who previously fought in Ukraine with Swift and stayed in contact with his platoon through phone calls and late-night text messages — told Rolling Stone that during an operation in Bakhmut on the night of Jan. 14 and into the early morning of Jan. 15, Russian forces launched an anti-personnel rocket-propelled grenade at Swift and two other soldiers, knocking them down.

An American intelligence official, who first told Rolling Stone about Swift’s death, said he suffered a massive traumatic brain injury and died early Thursday morning. The official asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Thiemann wrote on Facebook that Ukrainian troops were doing everything they could to keep Swift alive, but their resources are stretched thin as they attempt to accommodate all of the wounded.

Swift was left in critical condition with severe head trauma, per Thiemann, who was not on the operation at the time but briefed by his platoon mates. The other two soldiers are stable and in recovery.

Contacted by Rolling Stone, Swift’s sister confirmed his death but declined to make a statement on behalf of the family.

For months, intense fighting around the small city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of Ukraine has resembled a battlefield out of the First World War rather than the insurgencies of the post-9/11 era.

Ukrainian soldiers fight from trenches as waves of Russian soldiers and hired guns from the Wagner Group—a nominally private military company run by Putin confidante Yevgeney Prigozhin—assault over open terrain. This war of attrition is raw and ugly as gun battles rage for hours on end amid heavy artillery bombardments. Success is measured in patches of dirt and whether one cheats death to see another day.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who formerly served as head of U.S. Army Europe, told Rolling Stone that Bakhmut has become a test of Prigozhin’s influence within the Russian military hierarchy.

“His PWC Wagner organization of mercenaries has been focused on this area for months, without much success, pushing thousands of Russian troops into the ‘meat grinder,’ said Hodges. “His force consists of veterans of PWC Wagner but includes a large percentage of which are recently mobilized and poorly-trained, in an attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian defenders with mass.”

He added: “The ability of Ukrainian soldiers to resist multiple human-wave attacks each day, supported by seemingly endless Russian artillery strikes, is remarkable. It is also showing the Ukrainian general staff that Ukraine can hold back Russian attacks, despite superior numbers of Russian troops, with what they have, although at very high cost. This is important because this will allow Ukraine to build up new forces for a major counter-offensive in the Spring, instead of pushing every new soldier or weapon system into the Bahkmut area. Incredible resistance at the tactical level will yield offensive opportunity at the operational level.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the U.S. Treasury Department will impose additional sanctions on Wagner Group next week and designate the private military company as a transnational criminal organization."

✓ Before he died in Ukraine, Swift joined the U.S. Navy after a high school career of both football and wrestling, according to a self-published memoir on Amazon that Swift wrote in August 2020 under what appears to be a pseudonym. The book is called: “The Fall of a Man.”

Ironically, he arrived at boot camp on June 28, 2005—the day of Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan and the subject of the 2013 film ‘Lone Survivor,’ starring actor Mark Wahlberg. 19 U.S. service members died during that operation.

**By the time he was 30 years old, Swift claims to have deployed five times to combat missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in Yemen in 2018. Swift is decorated with medals like the Legion of Merit and multiple personal and campaign awards. Later, he served as a police officer for Washington State Patrol and the Medford Police Department in Oregon.

Yet, by April 2019, a felony bench warrant had gone out for Swift for the primary charge of false imprisonment related to his divorce. The judge in North County Superior set his bail at $250 thousand. The San Diego County Sherriff’s Department told Rolling Stone the warrant is still active. A month before the U.S. Navy listed him as an active deserter.

Thiemann told Rolling Stone that when Swift unexpectedly turned up in Irpin, Ukraine, he had no equipment of his own but would still go on operations.

“He only had one uniform…He used duct tape to tape armored plates to his chest and back to go on target until he was given a plate carrier,” said Thiemann. “After our SEAL Team Six guy left, he led our team in Crimea, Severodonetsk, and Svyatohirsk, and continued to lead the team after I left. He was one of the hardest and most tactically proficient men I have ever met.”

Swift served in the same platoon as another volunteer soldier who was killed this past weekend: Canadian citizen Grygorii “Greg” Tsekhmistrenko, who served as their medic.

“Despite having no military experience, Greg was one of the best soldiers I have ever met,” said Thiemann. “Under constant bombardment from the Russians in Hostomel on the first day of the war, with no rifle, no weapon, and little chance of survival, he was there — with only his med bag — ready to die for his country. No matter how bad or how dark things ever got, Greg was positive.”

Greg’s father, Vitalii Tsekhmistrenko, told CBC News from Kyiv on Monday that his son “wanted to build a house on the water after the war.” At Greg’s funeral on Friday in Kyiv, the platoon leader said Greg died trying to save Swift, said Thiemann, who attended the memorial service.

The life of a combatant affords little time to take stock of all one has lost in martial time. You miss birthday parties. You miss wedding anniversaries. Baseball games and dance recitals. Your child’s first steps and the warmth of a spouse under a cool set of sheets. Often, infantry soldiers are left with divorce and debt. Bad memories and another funeral. And then another.

When asked how he was coping with the loss of friends in both the Afghanistan and Ukraine war, Thiemann said: “I just am tired of it. I want the war to end because the cost will only increase, but even worse I want to stand up for what is right. It is a really terrible thing that is going on. It breaks my heart that most people will never understand the depth of their sacrifice and it breaks my heart that they’ve had to make that sacrifice.”

Jim LaPorta covers national security and military affairs. He is a former U.S. Marine infantryman and a veteran of the Afghanistan war. You can follow him on Twitter @JimLaPorta

Rolling Stone: In his final years on this planet, Croz seemed renewed, making some of his best records ever and sounding humbled in interviews like that one in 2018. His death at age 81 leaves an irreplaceable space in music. Here are his greatest songs.

David Crosby: 20 Essential Songs by the Folk-Rock Legend

The golden-voiced pioneer and true American original leaves behind a singular catalog full of gorgeous music

David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash and Young is photographed backstage at the Big Sur Folk Festival held at the Esalen Institue on September, 15 1969 in Big Sur, California. Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

“I’ve got to make the most of every minute I have,” David Crosby told Rolling Stone in 2018. “Wouldn’t you?” He was on his third or fourth life by then — the golden-voiced, long-haired, cantankerous, beatific American original who was there to invent folk-rock with the Byrds in the mid-Sixties, to redefine the supergroup with Crosby, Stills, and Nash a few years later, and to remain unquestionably himself through all the decades of gorgeous harmonies and outrageous opinions that followed. In his final years on this planet, Croz seemed renewed, making some of his best records ever and sounding humbled in interviews like that one in 2018. His death at age 8 1 leaves an irreplaceable space in music. Here are his greatest songs.

“Turn, Turn, Turn” (1965)

Crosby didn’t write or take the lead vocal on the Byrds’ chart-topping cover of Pete Seeger’s Bible-derived folk classic, but he did arrange the unforgettable vocal harmonies, as he did throughout his tenure in the band. It’s impossible to imagine this song without Crosby’s high parts floating above McGuinn’s lead on the refrain — a sound that inspired countless harmony-rich folk and rock acts in the decades to come. — B.H.

“Renaissance Fair” (1967)

Of all the original Byrds, Crosby was always the hippest and hippie-est, from his capes to his increasingly long locks. His open tunings, ethereal melodies, and elliptical lyrics captured that vibe, too, as heard on this ode to a land of “cinnamon and spices” with a “kaleidoscope of colors” from Younger Than Yesterday. This was inspired by actual Renaissance fairs in L.A. at the time. “They were the first large gatherings of hippies,” he said in the notes to his box set Voyage, “even before the Be-Ins.” This song, he said, “gave you a taste of what it was like.” — D.B.

“Everybody’s Been Burned” (1967)

Amid cycles of psychedelic chords, Crosby wrote lyrics about coming to terms with being hurt for this contemplative deep cut. “Everybody has been burned before,” opens the song. “Everybody knows the pain.” Crosby had written the tune, whose jazzy voicings allowed for an avant-garde guitar solo, a few years before he joined the group, and years later he still recognized it as a songwriting breakthrough, calling it “the first actually passable song that I wrote” in a 1995 interview. “‘Everybody’s Been Burned’ was most characteristic of what was to become my style,” he said in ’84, “pretty changes, an unusual feel and flavor — plus good words.” — K.G.

Editor’s picks

“Triad” (1968)

Crosby’s relentless drive to push the Byrds into new realms — so effective when he turned his bandmates on to Coltrane and raga for “Eight Miles High” in 1966 — met its limit two years later with this frank threesome proposition. “I love you too, and I don’t really see,” he crooned over the band’s smoky slow-burn, “why can’t we go on as three?” Those words were risqué enough to get him axed from the band in the fall of 1968, after Croz fought unsuccessfully for the song’s inclusion on The Notorious Byrd Brothers amid growing conflicts with bandmates Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. (Jefferson Airplane, always game for a provocative gesture, went on to cover it; the Byrds’ original studio recording of “Triad” wouldn’t be released til years later as a bonus track.) “At least one group of people was very uptight by that song,” Crosby told Rolling Stone’s Ben Fong-Torres in 1970, after he’d landed happily in CSN. “This band is not uptight behind that song at all, having been through similar experiences.” — S.V.L.

“Guinnevere” (1969)

Imagine it’s 1969 and you just bought CSN’s debut album. It opens with the seven-minute “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” followed by the rollicking “Marrakesh Express.” But by the third track, it all slows down. It’s the ballad “Guinnevere,” and you’ve entered the mystic. Croz himself knew the song was a killer, as he describes the legendary English queen’s green eyes and golden hair over an almost haunting time signature. He eventually revealed to us that he wrote the song about three different real-life, non-mythical women. One was his partner Christine Gail Hinton, who would die later that year in a tragic crash; another was Joni Mitchell. “And the other one is somebody that I can’t tell,” he said. “It might be my best song.” — A.M.

“Long Time Gone” (1969)

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Sunday, January 22, 2023

Hawk Eye 360

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