Private space pilots are flying orbital missions for the US Space Force
Private space pilots are flying orbital missions for the US Space Force
私营太空飞行员正在为美国太空军执行轨道任务
Militaries routinely send satellites to fly by rival vehicles and suss out their capabilities, but scaling up this kind of reconnaissance is increasingly seen by the U.S. military as a challenge best handled by the private sector. That’s why two space startups, True Anomaly and Rocket Lab, completed a rendezvous mission for the U.S. Space Force last week so complex, it was like something out of “Top Gun.”
各国军队经常派遣卫星飞越竞争对手的航天器以探测其能力，但美国军方日益认为，扩大此类侦察规模的最佳方案是交由私营部门处理。正因如此，两家太空初创公司 True Anomaly 和 Rocket Lab 上周为美国太空军完成了一项极其复杂的交会任务，其难度堪比电影《壮志凌云》（Top Gun）中的情节。
Their two rival satellites met up in orbit, close enough for one to capture imagery of the other. The exercise, dubbed Victus Haze, demonstrated the close inspection of a space vehicle soon after it arrived in orbit, a necessity in a world where the U.S., Russia, and China are deploying novel space weapons.
这两家公司的卫星在轨道上实现了交会，距离近到足以让其中一颗卫星拍摄到另一颗的影像。这项名为“Victus Haze”的演习展示了在航天器进入轨道后立即对其进行近距离检查的能力——在美、俄、中三国都在部署新型太空武器的当下，这已成为一项必要手段。
“China and Russia launch capabilities to space on a regular basis, and part of the Space Force’s job is to understand what those capabilities are,” True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers, a veteran of the U.S. military’s space efforts, told TechCrunch. “Right now we have gaps in our collection capability.”
True Anomaly 首席执行官、美国军方太空任务老兵 Even Rogers 在接受 TechCrunch 采访时表示：“中国和俄罗斯定期向太空发射航天器，太空军的任务之一就是了解这些航天器的能力。目前，我们在情报收集能力上还存在缺口。”
The June mission saw Rocket Lab, a rocket-building rival to SpaceX that recently announced its acquisition of Iridium, launch a spacecraft called Puma just 16 hours and 42 minutes after receiving notice, which is notable because most rocket launches are buttoned up months in advance. A Jackal spacecraft built by True Anomaly was waiting in orbit to intercept it.
在六月的这次任务中，作为 SpaceX 的火箭制造竞争对手，近期宣布收购 Iridium 的 Rocket Lab 在接到通知后仅 16 小时 42 分钟就发射了一颗名为 Puma 的航天器。这非常引人注目，因为大多数火箭发射任务通常需要提前数月准备。而 True Anomaly 制造的 Jackal 航天器早已在轨道上等待拦截。
As part of the exercise, the company didn’t know where Puma would arrive in space but used onboard sensors to find and identify its target from 2,000 kilometers away. The Jackal then flew close to the target — exactly how close is classified — and orbited it, capturing imagery of different parts of the vehicle, before returning to its starting point in orbit.
作为演习的一部分，True Anomaly 公司事先并不知道 Puma 会出现在太空中的哪个位置，但他们利用机载传感器在 2,000 公里外就发现并锁定了目标。随后，Jackal 飞抵目标附近（具体距离保密）并绕其飞行，拍摄了该航天器不同部位的影像，最后返回了轨道起始点。
True Anomaly’s CEO said that, outside of NASA and Space Force space flight missions with humans, “this is probably the most complex rendezvous and proximity operation between two spacecraft in modern history.”
True Anomaly 的首席执行官表示，除了 NASA 和太空军的载人航天任务外，“这可能是现代史上两颗航天器之间最复杂的交会与近距离操作。”
Bringing together two spacecraft in orbit, where they’re both moving at speeds approaching 17,500 mph, is no easy feat. Previous private demonstrations, like those performed by Northrop Grumman’s maintenance satellites or Astroscale’s orbital garbage hunting missions, operate on slower time frames.
在轨道上让两颗航天器汇合，且两者均以接近每小时 17,500 英里的速度飞行，这绝非易事。此前私营部门的演示，如诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司的维护卫星或 Astroscale 的轨道垃圾清理任务，其操作节奏都更为缓慢。
And now things get interesting: The two companies are prepared to perform new exercises in the weeks ahead with increasing difficulty, which could include Rocket Lab’s Puma trying to evade True Anomaly’s Jackal and performing its own inspection maneuvers.
接下来的进展将更加引人关注：两家公司准备在未来几周内进行难度更高的新演习，其中可能包括 Rocket Lab 的 Puma 尝试躲避 True Anomaly 的 Jackal，并执行其自身的检查机动。
Founded in 2022 by Rogers and a cadre of former military space experts, True Anomaly planned to build both the hardware and software to enable the new tasks assigned to the U.S. Space Force when it was created in 2019. After several years of development missions, last month’s demonstration has begun to realize that vision.
True Anomaly 由 Rogers 和一批前军方太空专家于 2022 年创立，旨在构建软硬件设施，以支持美国太空军自 2019 年成立以来被赋予的新任务。经过几年的开发任务，上个月的演示标志着这一愿景开始成为现实。
“That’s the secret sauce of this company,” said Seth Winterroth, a partner at Eclipse Ventures who sits on True Anomaly’s board. “It’s not one spacecraft architecture or one piece of software or a certain set of payloads — it’s a deep, deep understanding of what tactics and doctrine look like in this domain.”
“这就是这家公司的秘诀所在，”Eclipse Ventures 合伙人、True Anomaly 董事会成员 Seth Winterroth 说道，“这不仅仅是关于某种航天器架构、某款软件或某套载荷，而是对该领域战术和条令的深刻理解。”
True Anomaly has raised just over $1 billion, including a $650 million round in March. Now the company will look to compete for a number of task orders, particularly in the Space Force’s $6.2 billion Andromeda program, which looks to the private sector for exactly this kind of maneuverable reconnaissance.
True Anomaly 已筹集了超过 10 亿美元的资金，其中包括三月份完成的 6.5 亿美元融资。现在，该公司将寻求竞标多项任务订单，特别是太空军价值 62 亿美元的“仙女座”（Andromeda）计划，该计划正是希望通过私营部门来实现这种机动侦察能力。
“Flight heritage is everything, and demonstrated capability is what speaks the loudest with these opportunities,” Rogers said.
“飞行经验就是一切，而经过验证的能力在这些机会面前最有说服力，”Rogers 说道。