NASA is likely to postpone the start of its Earth System Explorer program, which is one of the recommended lines of missions in the 2018 Earth science decadal survey, due to budget constraints, SpaceNews reported Monday.

Sandra Cauffman, acting director of NASA’s Earth science division, said the agency hopes to issue the first solicitation for the Earth System Explorer program this year.

“But given the appropriations we got in ’20 and the look out that we have for ’21, it doesn’t look promising that we can do it next year or even ’22,” she said. “We’ll just have to keep a watch on the budget developments.”

Earth System Explorer is a line of medium-class missions that would be competed and focus on studies in seven Earth science areas. Under the program, NASA will pick the first set of proposals before selecting one from the initial set to transition to full-scale development.

The U.S. Air Force is increasing its use of ethical hackers to simulate cyber attacks on its information technology networks and Lauren Knausenberger, chief transformation officer at the service, said a $75 million blanket purchase agreement the service signed with cybersecurity firm Dark Wolf in February 2020 is an example of that, FedScoop reported Monday.

Airmen and other Air Force personnel can ask Dark Wolf to perform penetration testing on their networks under the BPA.

“For the past three years now we have really been embracing the hacker community,” Knausenberger said of the Air Force’s bug bounty programs. “I do expect our demand will continue for some time.”

The Air Force is leveraging authorization to operate and other new authorities to sign deals with cybersecurity companies to expand “white hat” hacking and penetration testing efforts.

Personnel from Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division have received a patent for a technology designed to help unmanned aircraft systems collect data in chemical, biological and radiological operations.

The Senses CBR Agents Pre-Engagement and Goes Over All Terrain or SCAPEGOAT platform uses three dedicated detection modules, Naval Sea Systems Command said Friday.

SCAPEGOAT, equipped on a UAS, switches modules depending on whether the aircraft is operating in a chemical, biological or radiological environment.

“In this case, we have an ideal scenario, where our junior scientists and engineers, through a workforce development program sponsored by internal Naval Innovative Science and Engineering funds, have developed cutting-edge technology and generated a patent,” said Kate Jones, chief technology officer at NSWCDD.

She said that patents tangibly represent the innovative work of the division’s engineers and scientists. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted NSWCDD the SCAPEGOAT patent.

The U.S. Space Force has attained the initial operational capability of a radar system designed to help the service branch identify and track objects in orbit.

The Space Fence radar is designed to boost space situational awareness across satellites, debris, depleted boosters and other orbiting objects, USSF said Friday. The radar system is situated in the Marshall Islands, specifically Kwajalein Island.

The Alabama-based Space Fence Operations Center operates the radar. The 18th Space Control Squadron uses the radar’s data to monitor the country’s objects in space.

“Space Fence is revolutionizing the way we view space by providing timely, precise orbital data on objects that threaten both manned and unmanned military and commercial space assets,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, USSF’s chief of space operations and leader of U.S. Space Command and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient.

Lockheed Martin built Space Fence under a $914.7 million contract originally awarded by the U.S. Air Force.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for potential sources of cybersecurity technologies that can identify whether a system’s components have been altered during the manufacturing process.

NIST said in a Federal Register notice posted Thursday that the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence intends to partner with industry entities to address challenges under the Validating the Integrity of Computing Devices initiative.

Interested parties must demonstrate their technologies’ capacity to analyze the internal parts of configuration management software, computing devices, asset inventory software and security information and event management tools.

According to the notice, NIST seeks to establish new ways of inspecting system components and help organizations “decrease the risk of a compromise to products in a specific stage of their supply chain, which may result in risks to the end user.”

The agency will accept proposals through April 27.