Space Academy · Contents · Nederlandse versie
Space Academy — contents
A free learning environment on the military space domain: orbits (LEO, MEO, GEO, HEO), satellites and their sensors, NATO and US space operations, counterspace, and the Russian and Chinese view — with an orbit widget, knowledge checks and reference cards.
1Space as an operational domain
Why modern armed forces can no longer do without satellites, the four segments of a space system, the key terms, and who is active in space.
2Orbits: LEO, MEO, GEO, HEO and beyond
How an orbit works, which orbits exist and what they are for, and the trade-off between coverage, revisit, latency and sharpness that every satellite or constellation designer has to make. With an interactive orbit widget.
3Satellites and their sensors
Bus and payload, and the types of military satellites: communications, navigation, optical and infrared imagery, radar (SAR), signals interception, missile warning, weather and space surveillance — with what each sensor can and cannot do.
4Space operations according to NATO
How NATO has treated space as an operational domain since 2019: the space policy, Article 5, the doctrine (AJP-3.3 and the forthcoming AJP-3.29), space support to operations, space domain awareness and the organisation, with the APSS programme run from The Hague.
5Space operations according to the US
Space Force, Space Command and NRO; the classic four mission areas — space force enhancement, space support, space control and space force application — and the current organisation in JP 3-14 (2023), with the Space Force's core competencies and the difference from NATO.
6Counterspace and space warfare
All the ways of disrupting or destroying an opponent's space systems: kinetic (from the ground and from orbit), directed energy and nuclear weapons, electronic and cyber — with the known ASAT tests, the 'inspector' satellites and the problem of space debris.
7Russia: the Space Troops and their means
How Russia sees space as part of one aerospace sphere, how the Space Troops are organised within the VKS, which satellites Russia has (GLONASS, Kupol, Liana) and which counterspace means it shows: Nudol, inspector satellites, lasers and EW.
8China: the Aerospace Force and rapid build-up
How China sees space as the 'commanding height' for information dominance, the 2024 reorganisation with the Aerospace Force, BeiDou, the Yaogan reconnaissance satellites and the new mega-constellations, and China's counterspace means.
9Space in the war in Ukraine
The first major war in which commercial satellites play a leading role: company imagery, Starlink as the backbone of communications and drones, the cyber attack on Viasat on the first day, and GNSS jamming on an unprecedented scale.
10Analyst practice
Predicting satellite passes, reading and checking satellite imagery, testing claims about space incidents, two worked case studies (an approaching satellite and a reported ASAT test) and the online tools N2YO and Orbital Radar.
11Reference library
All cards on orbits, satellite systems and counterspace means in one searchable gallery, the interactive diagram of counterspace, mission areas and orbits, and the timeline from Sputnik to today.
12Sources & accountability
The complete source register: which open sources were used for every chapter and card, how the content was compiled and how to read it.