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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWinston Beauchamp<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Air Force<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The domain of space is becoming as critical for the U.S. to defend as cyberspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Not everybody realizes the degree to which modern life\u2026depends upon the capabilities delivered by space,” Beauchamp said. “We all have devices in our pockets that give us access to the accumulated knowledge of the human race and we all mostly use it to complain about movies and look at pictures of cats. But in addition to that, we use it to navigate, to communicate.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Global Positioning System is used for navigation and even to time-stamp digital transactions like those used by banks. Satellites provide trans-continental communication that is more reliable than trans-oceanic cables. Earth monitoring satellites keep an eye on weather, and can help provide critical information on disaster relief and global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beauchamp pointed to how satellites helped the U.S. government and its allies track the spread of Ebola by watching where crops were going un-harvested as the local population became sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Space has brought that transparency in a way that’s fairly ubiquitous and in fact often unnoticed and rarely attributed,” Beauchamp said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, he said, that’s starting to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There is a resurgence in interest in space in this country that I have not seen since the days of the Moon landing,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Air Force must be prepared to defend any civilian or commercial assets that are threatened in orbit, just as it would on the ground, a top space official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":65175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[16,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1813],"class_list":["post-33893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"BNOWFCII7NGL7DNMZPGWSYKXBI","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2016\/03\/17\/us-air-force-will-defend-civilian-space-assets-official-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n