In the years after the Cold War ended, the Pentagon's space program nearly collapsed due to slashed budgets, flawed planning assumptions, and lack of competent oversight. New satellite programs essential to national security encountered massive cost overruns and multiyear delays. Almost nobody running the military space program and its intelligence-community counterpart today remembers how bad it got. First, after the Soviet Union collapsed, the Pentagon's budget for spy satellites, missile warning systems and various other orbital assets was greatly reduced. A costly constellation of spy satellites ended up being restructured because parts of it were deemed unworkable.

Source: Forbes March 07, 2018 16:30 UTC