Courtney Albon
Courtney Albon is the Space Editor at Air & Space Forces Magazine. She has been covering the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. During that time, she has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges, including the F-35 fighter jet, hypersonic capability development and the creation of the Space Force.
Recent stories by Courtney Albon
Boeing Takes First KC-46 Charge Since 2024
Boeing announced a new $565 million charge on its contract for the KC-46A Pegasus tanker, its first loss on the program since 2024. In a Jan. 27 earnings call, company leaders said the charge is due to cost growth on the 767 airliner, which is ...
Space Force’s Newest Reconnaissance Satellites Could Come Online by 2030
The Space Force plans to award initial contracts as soon as next month for a fleet of small, maneuverable satellites designed to monitor activity in geosynchronous orbit that could be online as soon as 2030, service officials said Jan. 23.
Golden Dome Czar Charts Two-Year Plan Focused on Command and Control, Interceptors
The Pentagon’s Golden Dome Director said Jan. 23 his top priorities for the advanced homeland missile defense shield over the next two years are establishing a baseline command-and-control capability and integrating interceptors into that system.
Vice Chief: Space Force Should Be Thinking About Cislunar ‘a Lot Right Now’
The Space Force’s small size has limited its capacity to consider what role it will play in future operations on and around the moon. That needs to change, according to Vice Chief of Operations Gen. Shawn Bratton.
Congress Wants More Insight into Golden Dome Budget
Lawmakers told Pentagon leaders they want more details about how the Defense Department plans to spend the $23 billion Congress provide to support Golden Dome in last year’s reconciliation deal.
Colorado Springs Leaders Oppose Lawsuit to Block SPACECOM Move: ‘We’re Looking Forward’
Some Colorado officials are seeking to distance themselves from the state’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to relocate U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Huntsville, Ala.—signaling a decreased appetite for extending the yearslong political debate that has dogged the ...
Congress Sets Guardrails for Pentagon Acquisition Reforms
House and Senate lawmakers say they’re on board with the Pentagon’s latest plan to reform the way it buys new systems, but in a report accompanying the latest draft of fiscal 2026 defense spending bill, they urged more investment in the defense acquisition workforce and ...
What to Watch as Pentagon Implements AI, Innovation Reforms
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.
What to Watch as Lawmakers Race to Pass 2026 Defense Budget by Jan. 30
House and Senate lawmakers say they’re hopeful Congress will pass a defense appropriations bill in the coming weeks to avoid a repeat of last fall’s government shutdown, with only having a handful of working days remaining before the Jan. 30 deadline. Yet legislations still have to release a compromise version of defense spending ...
Space Force’s Newest Weather Satellite Feeding Data to NOAA Forecasters
As the Space Force moves forward with plans to modernize its weather satellite architecture, it’s working closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to share data and leverage the agency’s modeling and validation tools, officials told lawmakers in a Jan. 13 hearing.
At F-35 Factory, Hegseth Makes Acquisition Reform Case and Says Lockheed Will ‘Step Up’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth foot-stomped the Pentagon's push for acquisition speed and contractor accountability in a Jan. 12 speech at Lockheed Martin’s production hub in Fort Worth, Texas—the heart of the department’s biggest acquisition program, the F-35.
SpaceX Sweeps Another Round of Space Force’s More Commercial-Like Launch Orders
The Space Force recently awarded SpaceX $739 million to launch nine missions for the Space Development Agency and National Reconnaissance Office over the next three years. Five of the awarded launches will be to build out SDA’s constellation of missile warning and tracking satellites in ...
What a $1.5T Defense Budget Could Mean for the Air Force and Space Force
For the Air Force and Space Force, an influx of additional resources could be an opportunity to accelerate a massive modernization portfolio and ramp up aircraft and satellite production, defense analysts and former officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Air Force, Space Force Introduce First Acquisition Portfolios in Reform Push
The Department of the Air Force announced seven new mission area-focused portfolio acquisition executives for the Air Force and Space Force, some of the department's first steps to implement Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's sweeping acquisition reforms.
ULA Eyes Vulcan’s Second Space Force Launch amid Major Leadership Change
United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is slated to fly its second national security mission in February—nearly six months after its first operational launch and almost a year after it was certified to fly military payloads for the Space Force.
