An unmanned Delta 4 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday with
a pair of U.S. military satellites designed to keep watch on other countries’ spacecraft.
General William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, likened GSSAP to a “neighborhood watch program” that will keep tabs on other countries’ satellites.
The program "will bolster our ability to discern when adversaries attempt to avoid detection and to discover capabilities they may have which might be harmful to our critical assets at these higher altitudes," Shelton said during a speech in February that unveiled the once-classified program.
GSSAP also will track orbital debris, which could pose a threat to operational satellites. Current ground-based radar systems and telescopes can monitor objects that are bigger than about 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter.
http://news.yahoo.com/rocket-blasts-...--finance.html