14th Air Force Detachment — Space Tactics Internship

A program created by the Air Force Space Command and Lincoln Laboratory gives participants experience with advanced systems and processes for managing space operations.

Space Tactics Interns learn the operations of the high-power Millstone Hill radar that tracks space vehicles and space debris.

These participants in the Space Tactics Internship spent part of their instructional time at the L-band Millstone Hill radar in Westford, Massachusetts.

Staff at Lincoln Laboratory collaborated with space operations groups from across Air Force Space Command to create an annual Space Tactics Internship that allows space operators to work with our technology experts in a research environment. The 14th Air Force Detachment is assigned to the Laboratory to coordinate this four-week program. During their internship, 15 participants from several U.S. Air Force bases receive more than 120 hours of hands-on instruction from our operators, engineers, and analysts at the Lexington Command, Control and Collaboration Testbed, housed at the main Lincoln Laboratory campus, and the Lincoln Space Surveillance Complex, located in Westford, Massachusetts, about 22 miles west of the Laboratory. The internship gives the civilian and officer participants an environment in which to formulate and test processes for space operations. Interns learn ways to address growing threats to the space domain and to improve their operations. They are introduced to the advanced capabilities of space systems we develop. In addition, by sharing their work experiences with other space operators, they often discover new procedures that may be applied to the missions they support.