Laser jamming, space avoidance maneuver… How Star Wars is preparing in Toulouse
By Thibaut Calatayud
Published on
A second star wars took place in Toulouse. For the second consecutive year, the Pink City hosted the military space exercise called “AstreX”. This 2022 session took place at the Cité de l’Espace.
This event, organized within the framework of the French Presidency of the European Union (PFUE), brought together the Space Command (CDE), installed on the CNES site in Toulouse, and EU Member States.
UN ” war game » spatial
For two weeks, from February 24 to March 4, 130 people participated in a ” war game “ space under ultra-realistic conditions. For fans of pop culture, the exercise can be compared to the famous simulation of “Kobayashi Maru” in star trek.
Every day, the Space Command and its partners make it possible to manage crisis situations. Among them, we can cite the satellite laser jamming or telecommunications by a hostile ship.
They simulate an evasive maneuver
This Friday, March 4, we were able to enter the operations room. The military and other operators were hard at work to resolve a complex situation: a hostile satellite get closer to a CSO (Optical Space Component) observation satellite.
Faced with this situation, the CDE decided to operate an evasive maneuver strong to get away from danger. A decision that will have operational consequences for the CSO satellite.
“It costs fuel, so it affects the lifetime of the satellite. Then, the whole time you’re maneuvering and you’re not in your normal orbit, you can’t take images because you don’t you are not in the right configuration”.
A “very instructive” training
For the soldiers of the Space Command, this type of exercise is “very instructive”. If they already theoretically know all space threats, it is important for them to be confronted with realistic situationsboth on the threats and on the modes of action.
In addition, this simulation allows the CDE to test the structure it envisages for its ramp-up, “within two to three years”, in Toulouse.
The Minister of Armies, Florence Parlyhis Portuguese and Luxembourg counterparts, as well as the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, came to close this exercise.
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