Out In Space

An "interim" version of the Pentagon's 2010 Space Posture Review was signed today by a senior Defense Department official, according to Air Force space programs chief Gary Payton.

Payton told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee this afternoon that officials from the office of the director of national intelligence have not yet approved the report. Once that is done, a copy will be made available to Congress, he added.

As Inside the Air Force reported in January, the service is conducting its own soup-to-nuts review of its space policies, programs and operations with plans to have a final slate of recommendations ready for review by Air Force Secretary Michael Donley by the end of the year.

Donley outlined the parameters and prime objectives of the review in a service-wide memo issued on Dec. 9, 2010, ITAF reported, adding:

Service officials have conferred with DOD regarding the ongoing Air Force review, according to the service official, who declined to comment on what kind of impact the DOD-led review would have on the service assessment, or how the service review would be incorporated into the Pentagon’s work.

“It has been a positive discussion, and I’ll just leave it at that,” the official said.

While the review is on pace to meet the mid-2010 deadline set by Donley in the Dec. 9 memo, the official said no preliminary versions of the report’s recommendations have been issued. “I do not think it is going to work like that,” the source said. “I think it is going to be more of an iterative process.”