but soon after, that debris came to life. lieutenant general david buck, commander of u.s. military space forces, was on duty. the one object that we assumed was a piece of debris started to maneuver in close proximity to the booster. it has continued to over time make maneuvers? we re watching it very closely. in other words, it s not debris, but a satellite with new and dangerous capabilities. hidden from sight in an old airplane hangar at vandenberg is general buck s team. airmen who consider themselves the first space warriors. first lieutenant andrew engle is one of them, assigned to the giant space operations center. one small part of america s space command. it s a command with some 38,000 employees, a nearly $9 billion
skilled. today, lieutenant engle, one of space command s newly created defensive duty officers, watches his computer screens with the alertness of a sentry guarding a forward military outpost. skbl it takes a lot of vigilance, it takes us being focused and being ready every single day. we would absolutely be shocked if the u.s. military were not on a war footing now based on what we see. paul gratsani finds his team on the front lines of this new threat. there s no doubt that russia and china both have seen that this is a way that they could shift the odds in their favor. agi tracks some 10,000 commercial and military objects orbiting the earth. their visual rendering of satellites and debris as small as 4 inches across resembles a porch light swarming with
hidden from sight in an old airplane hangar at vandenberg is general buck s team. airmen who consider themselves the first space warriors. first lieutenant andrew engle is one of them, assigned to the joint space operation center. one small part of america s space command. it s a command with some 38,000 employees, a nearly $9 billion annual budget, and 134 locations across the globe. now, when you see a satellite from another country move in space like that, is there any other explanation, except that they re testing out an offensive capability? everything that has that type of capability can be easily changed into an offensive capability. the satellite s official call sign is cosmos 2499, but the
airmen here have a more daunting nickname. kamikaze, a spacecraft expressly designed to maneuver up close to another satellite and disable or destroy it. in other words, this satellite can go on attack. this is something that s kind of on the new frontier of space that we re seeing from our adversaries in this aspect. it s highly technical, highly skilled. today, lieutenant engle, one of space command s newly created defensive duty officers, watches his computer screens with the alertness of a sentry guarding a forward military outpost. it takes a lot of vigilance, it takes us being focused and being ready every single day. we would absolutely be shocked if the u.s. military were not on a war footing now based on what we see.
a local school shut down because of wife. we ll have details on how many students are ill and what is happening to prevent the spread while classes are called off. talk of a strategy shift in afghanistan continues. eight years to the day from when the war started. fox 5 morning news continues right now. taking a live look from sky fox this morning up above d.c. it is wednesday, october 7th 2009. good morning. thank you for waking up with us this morning. i m steve chenevey. i m gurvir dhindsa. we ll get to our weather in just a minute but we do want to give you an update on the accident on the beltway in montgomery county this morning. good news here. the accident is now cleared up and traffic is moving again. the accident happened earlier this morning on the inner loop just after georgia avenue approaching 29. a tractor-trailer jackknifed and when a county police officer stopped to help out, another big rig hit that cruiser and jackknifed. that officer jumped over an