In orbit: military looks to small satellites as costs for large spacecraft grow.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: SPACE TECHNOLOGY - Operationally responsive space program

After some 50 years of launching large, complex, multi-million dollar spacecraft, the military and industry are rethinking the way satellites are built and acquired.

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Large satellites aren't going away, experts said at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo. But the need for systems that don't take a decade to develop and deliver, and can survive an attack, or be quickly replaced, is driving the trend toward smaller spacecraft. The "operationally responsive space" concept that calls for simpler and faster-to-orbit satellites will be endorsed in an upcoming Defense Department posture review.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn, while delivering a preview of the long-awaited space posture review at the conference, indicated that the responsive space concept will be a major part of the document.

The ORS program "can help us counter threats to our space capabilities. By building systems on small satellites, using modular components, ORS gives us the ability to rapidly augment our space systems," he said.

The program "can deliver capabilities in less time than it takes to build larger platforms," he added.

The need to field new technologies on time and on budget, and that have a more immediate impact on today's wars have been themes repeated in Defense Secretary Robert Gates' speeches. Congress has also singled out the cumbersome and expensive process of building satellites as a prime example of how major acquisition programs go wrong. Their costs spiraled out of control during the past decade, delivery milestones went unmet and the national security space community's reputation took a hit on Capitol Hill. Last year, Gates cancelled the $26 billion Transformational-Satellite Program, after its schedule had slipped by four years.

In the beginning of the Bush administration, as several military and spy satellite programs were coming in late and over budget, the then director of the newly created office of force transformation, Ret. Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski, began touting the operationally responsive space concept. The idea called for smaller satellites that could be launched in weeks or months, rather than years or decades, as is the case with larger satellites.

The concept also would require launch systems that could lift off more quickly than current rockets, and less complex spacecraft that could be assembled from off-the-shelf components in a "plug-and-play" fashion depending on the mission requirements. If a large communications satellite were damaged in an attack, for example, a small stopgap replacement...