Starfire Optical Range
The Starfire Optical Range is a research laboratory of the United States Air Force , which is in the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque ( New Mexico is). According to its homepage, it is working on the "development and demonstration of techniques for controlling optical wavefronts". The facility is a security wing and is part of the Directed Energy Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory .
Their optical equipment includes a
- 3.5-meter reflecting telescope , since 1994 equipped in operation since 1997 with an adaptive optics , a
- 1.5 meter telescope, and a
- Laser emitter with an aperture of 1.0 meter,
the former are also occasionally used for astronomical investigations.
Military use
According to a May 3, 2006 article in the New York Times , the facility is researching a method that will enable satellites to be turned off using ground-based lasers. Corresponding documents to raise the budget would have been submitted to the US Congress . Such a system would be equivalent to an energy weapon or a space weapon .
Web links
- Starfire Optical Range facilities (February 5, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive )
- Starfire Optical Range at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico , Nov. 18, 2009
- Administration Researches Laser Weapon . NY Times article, May 3, 2006
- Starfire Optical Range on globalsecurity.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ Barnaby, David; Spillar, Earl; Christou, Julian C .; Drummond, Jack D .: Measurements of Binary Stars with the Starfire Optical Range Adaptive Optics Systems . In: The Astronomical Journal . 119, No. 1, August, pp. 378-389. bibcode : 2000AJ .... 119..378B . doi : 10.1086 / 301155 .
- ↑ Drummond, Jack D .: Binary Stars Observed with Adaptive Optics at the Starfire Optical Range . In: The Astronomical Journal . 147, No. 3, 2014. bibcode : 2014AJ .... 147 ... 65D . doi : 10.1088 / 0004-6256 / 147/3/65 .
Coordinates: 34 ° 57 ′ 50.4 " N , 106 ° 27 ′ 46.8" W.