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
Space Force Expects to Spend $17B More on Launch as Demand Soars
The Space Force expects the scope of its main launch program to grow by 91 missions and nearly $17 billion by fiscal 2032 as demand for national security space capabilities soars.
Space Force May Export Launch Lessons to Foreign Partners
As U.S. allies look to establish sovereign military space launch capabilities, the Space Force is exploring ways to transfer lessons learned from its National Security Space Launch program to support its international partners.
Schiess Sworn in as New Space Force Chief: ‘We Must Grow with Intention’
Gen. Douglas Schiess assumed leadership of the Space Force on Sept. 3, succeeding Gen. B. Chance Saltzman as Chief of Space Operations during a change of responsibility ceremony here.
Pentagon Issues Contracts to Boost Manufacturing Capacity for Space Systems
The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to invest in manufacturing capacity for the space industrial base, awarding multiple contracts in recent weeks to companies who supply key space components and subsystems as well as firms with innovative manufacturing technology that’s ready to scale.
What to Watch from Trump’s US Space Academy Commission
As President Donald Trump’s commission to study a U.S. Space Academy formulates recommendations, experts say they’ll be watching for more detail on the academy’s mission and scope as well as efforts to garner feedback from members of Congress, who will ultimately get the final say ...
New Report: Space Force Spent $124M on Commercial Data, Services over Nearly 3 Years
The Space Force spent nearly $124 million on commercial space data and services between 2023 and 2025—and a little known interagency working group could help facilitate even more data buys going forward.
Space Force Adopts Digital Engineering Tool for NC3 Satellite Program
A new collaborative digital environment could change the way the Space Force—and possibly the broader Defense Department—designs and tests capabilities.
Space Force Plans ‘Scorecard’ to Evaluate Programs’ Commercial Integration and More
The Space Force is exploring ways to incentivize acquisition leaders to leverage more commercial innovation across their programs, including a new “scorecard” to quantify their efforts.
LAUNCH BOOM
America’s launch enterprise has been outperforming expectations for more than a decade, steadily increasing the missions it can support, the pace of resetting launch pads, and the agility to launch on demand. In 2025 alone, the service’s two spaceports,...
White House Policy Sets Goal of Supporting 1,000 Rocket Launches a Year by 2030
A new White House policy calls for the Pentagon to craft plans for additional space launch facilities to support a projected increase in launch demand that could see the U.S. supporting as many as 1,000 launches by 2030, more than a fivefold increase from 2025.
Space Command to Relocate 200 Personnel to Alabama This Year
U.S. Space Command officials say they’re on track to relocate 200 personnel from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Huntsville, Ala., by the end of this year as part of a multiyear transition of the command’s headquarters.
Golden Dome Secrecy Poses Challenge for Estimating Costs
While Pentagon officials have revealed some details about the architecture behind the Golden Dome missile defense project, crafting an independent cost estimate for a largely classified program remains a challenge, experts said Aug. 19.
USSF to Operate Legacy Weather Sats Until at Least 2028 as It Works on Replacements
The Space Force will maintain its aging weather satellite fleet—which provides key forecasting data for military planners—until at least 2028 as it transitions to a new replacement architecture.
Space Force Adds 5 New Vendors to Space Data Network Project
The Space Force announced five new contract awards for its Space Data Network, broadening the vendor base for the proliferated data transport constellation.
SPACECOM Wants to Proliferate Ground Stations—and Counter Adversary Proliferation
The head of U.S. Space Command said Aug. 12 that operations in Iran have shown just how vulnerable ground-based space assets—particularly missile defense systems—are to attack and called for a more resilient, mobile architecture.
