乌克兰基辅 — 美国太空军和五角大楼已委托两家公司建造新型侦察卫星，这些卫星具备对地球上方超过22,000英里处的物体进行高分辨率“太空对太空成像”的能力。
KYIV, Ukraine — The Space Force and the Pentagon have commissioned two companies to build new reconnaissance satellites capable of delivering high-resolution “space-to-space imagery” of objects more than 22,000 miles above Earth.
9月18日，太空系统司令部根据“地球同步轨道高分辨率光学天基战术侦察”（GHOST-R）项目，向诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司和True Anomaly公司授予了原型机合同。
Space Systems Command awarded the prototype contracts to Northrop Grumman and True Anomaly under the Geosynchronous High-Resolution Optical Space-Based Tactical Reconnaissance program, or GHOST-R, on Sept. 18.
该协议将一家老牌美国国防主承包商与一家成立四年的太空科技公司结合在一起，这两家公司此前已与太空军签订合同，为五角大楼的“金穹”导弹防御计划开发天基拦截器。
The deal pairs a veteran American defense prime with a four-year-old space tech company – both of which are already under contract with the Space Force to develop space-based interceptors for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
美国太空司令部司令斯蒂芬·怀廷将军在9月16日于夏威夷茂宜岛举行的AMOS会议上（即公告发布前几天）表示：“为了能够消除太空威胁，我们必须能够发现、锁定、跟踪并瞄准这些威胁。”
“To be able to negate threats in space, we must be able to find, fix, track, and target those threats,” Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, said Sept. 16 at the AMOS Conference in Maui, Hawaii, just days before the announcement.
“太空领域的瞄准技术正在成熟，但仍有很长的路要走。”根据司令部的公告，GHOST-R旨在通过使用“商业开发的航天器、卫星平台和光电载荷，提供高分辨率的太空对太空成像，以识别地球静止轨道（GEO）上的在轨空间物体”，从而解决其中的部分问题。
“Targeting in the space domain is maturing, but it still has a long way to go.”GHOST-R is meant to address some of these problems by using “commercially developed space vehicles, buses, and electro-optical payloads to deliver high-resolution, space-to-space imagery for characterizing resident space objects in [geostationary Earth orbit] GEO,” according to the command announcement.
这些新合同是RG-XX项目的最新重大进展。RG-XX是太空军的下一代轨道跟踪计划，旨在到本十年末，在地球同步轨道上部署一支敏捷、低成本的侦察卫星编队，以帮助构建美国的太空防御能力。
The new contracts are the latest major development in the RG-XX program, the Space Force’s next-generation orbital tracking initiative aiming to field a fleet of agile, low-cost reconnaissance satellites in geosynchronous orbit to help build out U.S. defense capacity in space by the end of the decade.
太空作战力量代理投资组合采购执行官（PAE）布莱恩·麦克莱恩上校在新闻稿中表示：“与国防创新部门（DIU）在GHOST-R项目上的合作是真正的力量倍增器。我们正在利用快速原型设计，不断突破商业技术在RG-XX项目中能够实现的极限。”
“Collaborating with DIU on GHOST-R is a true force multiplier. We are leveraging rapid prototyping to push the envelope of what commercial tech can deliver to the RG-XX program,” Col. Bryon McClain, acting Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) for Space Combat Power, said in the release.
诺斯罗普公司将交付一款体积相当于“小型手提箱”的原型设备；该设备基于其ESPASat-L航天器制造，采用了商用光学传感器，并在“加速的24个月时间表”内完成研发。诺斯罗普公司副总裁瑞安·廷特纳（Ryan Tintner）在公司的公告中表示：“太空环境日益拥挤且竞争激烈，我们的军事行动依赖于对轨道上情况的清晰、及时的了解。”
Northrop will deliver a prototype the size of a “small suitcase” built on its ESPASat-L spacecraft, using a commercial optical sensor, and produced on “an accelerated 24-month timeline.”“Space is becoming more congested and contested every day, and our joint forces depend on clear, timely insight into what’s happening on orbit,” Ryan Tintner, Northrop’s vice president, said in a company announcement about the deal.
根据公司的公告，True Anomaly公司将通过这一合作项目提供其自主研发的“Jackal”自主轨道飞行器以及“Mosaic”指挥与控制系统（这套系统包含多种动态观测传感器）。
True Anomaly will deliver its Jackal autonomous orbital vehicle and Mosaic command-and-control system, a dynamic operations sensor suite, through the initiative, according to the company’s release.
公司首席执行官兼联合创始人埃文·罗杰斯（Even Rogers）在公告中强调：“随着那些灵活、机动性强的敌方平台的性能不断提升，传统的侦察系统已无法再依赖少数几台高性能设备来完成任务。”
“As agile, maneuverable adversary platforms become more capable, the reconnaissance architecture can no longer rely on a handful of exquisite assets,” company CEO and co-founder Even Rogers said in the announcement.
五角大楼及这两家公司目前尚未公开这些合同的具体金额或资金来源；不过，美国太空军（Space Force）为RG-XX项目设立的62亿美元资金池并未用于这笔交易，一位SSC（Space Systems Corporation）的发言人向《Breaking Defense》杂志透露了这一信息。
Neither the Pentagon nor the companies have so far disclosed the value of the contracts or the source of their funding – although the money did not come from Andromeda, the Space Force’s up to $6.2 billion contract pool for RG-XX, an SSC spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
官员们表示，新的GHOST-R原型设备计划于2028年直接发射至地球同步轨道，并在2029年开始执行由政府拥有和运营的侦察任务。
The new GHOST-R prototypes are set to launch directly to geosynchronous orbit by 2028 and fly government-owned and operated missions by 2029, officials said.