AFRL Astronomer Observes New Asteroid Satellite AFRL News: KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE — “I was wrong,” said Air Force Research Laboratory researcher, Dr. Jack Drummond, when looking back to his early research on asteroids and their orbiting moons. Drummond is an astronomer at AFRL’s Directed Energy Directorate Starfire Optical Range (SOR) on Kirtland Air Force Base. First as a government civil servant, and now as a Leidos contractor supporting AFRL, he has spent decades studying the solar system, and his research has often focused on asteroid satellites. Just what was he “wrong” about? Chagrined now, he says, Drummond published a paper in 1987 that predicted there were no moons around asteroids because constant collisions would prevent satellites from remaining in orbit. Since then dozens have been found, he said.