Secretive ANGELS satellite part of new space experiments

The U.S. Air Force is using a little-discussed satellite that launched in 2014 as part of ongoing experiments that look at how the Defense Department and intelligence community would act during a war in space. Gen. John Hyten, the head of Air Force Space Command, said during a press briefing here that the Defense Department has used the Automated Navigation and Guidance Experiment for Local Space, or ANGELS, satellite during recent space experiments. The satellite launched to geosynchronous orbit in July 2014 as part of the Air Force Space Command-4 mission, but Air Force leaders have rarely, if ever, discussed the satellite in public since then. Hyten said during a press briefing here at the Space Symposium that the Air Force has “done a bunch of interesting things with the ANGELS experiment.” More

(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 15)