The

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

's 1st Expeditionary Space Control Squadron is a provisional squadron attached to the 21st Space Wing at

Peterson Air Force Base Peterson Space Force Base, previously Peterson Air Force Base, Peterson Field, and Army Air Base, Colorado Springs, is a U.S. Space Force Base that shares an airfield with the adjacent Colorado Springs Municipal Airport and is home to the N ...

, Colorado. Before conversion to provisional status, the ''1st Space Control Squadron was a space situational awareness unit last located at

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida * Vandenberg Sp ...

, California. The

squadron Squadron may refer to: * Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies * Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...

commanded the United States Space Surveillance Network to detect, track, identify and catalog positional data for all man-made objects in Earth orbit. The squadron was established in 1989 as the 1st Command and Control Squadron at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base, Colorado. It was inactivated in 2008 and its personnel and equipment were integrated into the 614th Air and Space Operations Center.

History

Background

The roots of the

can be traced to 1961, when the

Space Detection and Tracking System Space Detection and Tracking System, or SPADATS, was built in 1960 to integrate defense systems built by different branches of the United States Armed Forces and was placed under North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The Air Force had a ...

Center at opened at

Ent Air Force Base Ent Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located in the Knob Hill neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colorado. A tent city, established in 1943 during construction of the base, was initially commanded by Major General Uzal Gira ...

, Colorado. The center brought together

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

and

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

systems designed to track objects in space in all directions, not merely Soviet

missiles In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

launched over the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. The center came under the operational control of

North American Air Defense Command North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

. There were several subsequent moves, name changes, and changes in personnel, experience, and equipment.

Activation

The Air Force activated the 1st Command and Control Squadron at

Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station (CMSFS) is located in Cheyenne Mountain on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado, next to Colorado Springs, The Cheyenne Mountain Complex, an underground facilit ...

, Colorado in December 1989 to operate the system. The 1st Command and Control Squadron provided collision avoidance support during each shuttle mission as well as maintaining an extensive satellite catalog (the "SATCAT" or "Box score"). This catalog is used by U.S. civilian and military agencies when launching new satellites into space, as well as by U.S. allies. The 1 SPCS tracked and compiled positional data on thousands of man-made objects in space partly to prevent collisions between newly launched satellites and other objects already orbiting the earth. Additionally, the unit had the mission to task 30 space sensors within Space Surveillance Network to track satellites for

US Strategic Command United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense. Headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, USSTRATCOM is responsible for Strategic_nuclear_weapon, ...

(USSTRATCOM) to maintain an accurate satellite catalog (SATCAT) of over 9000 objects orbiting the earth., To support manned space flight, 1 SPCS constructs a theoretical box around the space shuttle, MIR or ISS, and projects flight path intersections for 36 to 72 hours. If any objects intersects the theoretical box, the unit forwarded the analysis to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

, allowing them to determine whether to change the spacecraft/space station's flight path. Based on 1 SPCS mission analysis, and its predecessor units, NASA has moved the space shuttle 12 times and the International Space Station five times since 1981. In June 1995, the unit tracked the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis during its historic rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir. The unit also compiled a catalog of space objects. The 1 SPCS also contained international personnel, such as Canadian military, since SSA was not just a U.S. problem.

Move

In 2006, Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of NORAD directed a study on the continued use of the hardened command post at Cheyenne Mountain in view of what was perceived as diminished threats. The decision to close Cheyenne Moungain required a unit move. The unit moved to

, California in 2007 to better coordinate activities with the

Joint Space Operations Center The Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) is a U.S.–led multinational space operations center that provides command and control of space forces for United States Space Command's Combined Force Space Component Command. The CSpOC is located at ...

, it lost over 150 years of expert civilian experience.(archive returns only an error message)

Inactivation

The unit was inactivated on 9 Jun 2008, and its mission and members integrated into the 614th Air and Space Operations Center /

. Unconfirmed sources state that Cheyenne Mountain may retain some capability to cover the 1 SPCS mission, if required. At the time of inactivation, 106

Lineage

* Constituted as the 1st Command and Control Squadron on 30 November 1989 : Activated on 1 December 1989 : Redesignated 1st Space Control Squadron on 1 October 2001 : Inactivated c. 9 June 2008 * Redesignated 1st Expeditionary Space Control Squadron and converted to provisional status on 11 February 2009 : Activated 27 February 2009

Assignments

1st Space Wing The 1st Space Wing was a wing of the United States Air Force active from 1983 to 1992 at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado as part of Air Force Space Command.

, 1 December 1989 *

73d Space Surveillance Group Space Delta 3 (DEL 3) is a United States Space Force unit responsible for presenting operational combat-ready space electromagnetic warfare forces in support of assigned missions. It is headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base. Activated o ...

(later 73d Space Group), 28 February 1992 * 721st Space Group, 24 June 1994 * 21st Operations Group, 26 April 1995 – c. 9 June 2008 * Air Force Space Command to activate or inactivate as needed, 11 February 2009 :: Attached to 21st Space Wing, 27 February 2009

Stations

* Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base (later Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station), Colorado, 1 December 1989 * Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, 31 July 2007 - 9 June 2008 *

, Colorado, 27 February 2009 – present

Commanders

*Lt David Agee (1989–1991) *Lt Col Joseph Wysocki (1991–1992) *Lt Col John M. Rabins (1992–1994) *Lt Col Michael A. Muolo (1994–1996) *Lt Col Joseph G. Baillargeon (1996–1998) *Lt Col David A. Strand (14 Aug 1998-2000) *Lt Col Craigen B. Anderson (2000-2002) *Lt. Col. Scott F. Shepherd (2002–2004) *Lt Col Michael Mason (circa 2007), *Lt Col Chance Saltzman (July 2007-2008)

Awards

References

; Notes

Bibliography

* (link to Google Books Play)

External links

30th Space Wing: Vandenberg AFB home page
* * {{USAF Space Command Military units and formations in California Space Control 0001 Communications squadrons of the United States Air Force