{"id":581616,"date":"2026-03-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/?p=581616"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:47:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:47:25","slug":"golden-dome-and-the-velocity-race-why-ground-based-optics-are-the-key-to-mission-persistence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/golden-dome-and-the-velocity-race-why-ground-based-optics-are-the-key-to-mission-persistence\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Dome and the velocity race: Why ground-based optics are the key to mission persistence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While often described as a moonshot for missile defense, the Golden Dome for America mission is in reality something even more challenging: an exercise in disciplined systems engineering under threat. Hypersonic glide vehicles, maneuvering ballistic missiles and complex decoys are compressing timelines while raising the stakes for any gap in accuracy. In this environment, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While often described as a moonshot for missile defense, the Golden Dome for America mission is in reality something even more challenging: an exercise in disciplined systems engineering under threat. Hypersonic glide vehicles, maneuvering ballistic missiles and complex decoys are compressing timelines while raising the stakes for any gap in accuracy. In this environment, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11021,"featured_media":546871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"newspack_pugpig_automated_push":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Golden Dome is a race against hardware obsolescence","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"fullscreen","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4149,4163],"tags":[13229,4684,13415],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[14049,14050],"class_list":["post-581616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-militaryspace-archive","category-opinion-archive","tag-golden-dome","tag-opinion","tag-sn","membership-content","access-restricted","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - 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