KSC-2013-2573

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Robert Lightfoot, NASA associate director, talks to members of the media at the Ka Band Objects Observation and Monitoring, or KaBOOM, testbed antenna array site during a tour of Kennedy facilities. At right, in the foreground is Kennedy Director Bob Cabana. The goal of KaBOOM is to prove technologies that will allow future systems to characterize near-Earth objects in terms of size, shape, rotation_tumble rate and to determine the trajectory of those objects. Radar studies can determine the trajectory 100,000 times more precisely than can optical methods. While also capable of space communication and radio science experiments, developing radar applications is the primary focus of the arrays. The 40-foot-diameter dish antenna arrays are at the site of the former Vertical Processing Facility, which has been demolished. Photo credit: NASA_Jim Grossmann