The Air Force may well shift toward smaller, less-capable, but more numerous satellites in the coming years, says Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff. In November, Air Force Space Command boss Gen. Robert Kehler proposed such an approach at AFA’s Global Warfare Symposium in Los Angeles. (Transcript of Kehler’s comments.) “I think Bob is onto something,” said Schwartz during a Dec. 22 interview (see above). Such an approach would help to get satellite production into more of an assembly-line mode rather than a hand-built mode, and, by being smaller, the satellites would have to have fewer functions, thereby warding off excessive requirements creep, he said. Schwartz said, too, that “economies of scale” also argue for the small-satellite approach. And, smaller satellites offer the opportunity to “better manage cost, schedule, and capability,” he said.
NASA Boss: Race to Moon Has National Security Stakes
Sept. 15, 2026
NASA is pushing hard to get astronauts back to the moon by 2028—and the urgency is driven in no small part by the national security implications of doing so before China does, Administrator Jared Isaacman said Sept. 15.
