Posted: Sat, Feb 22, 2014, 9:38 AM ET (1438 GMT)
An Air Force general disclosed Friday the existence of a previously-classified program to develop satellites to keep watch on others in geosynchronous orbit. Speaking Friday at the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, said the US would launch two satellites into the vicinity of geosynchronous orbit later this year to keep watch on satellites in GEO. The Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSAP) spacecraft are built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, with two more to be launched in 2016. The satellites will fly just above and below GEO, drifting across the GEO belt to monitor critical satellites there. The existence of GSAP had been classified prior to Shelton's speech.

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