The launch last month of Orbital Watch, the new Space Force program to share declassified U.S. government threat intelligence with private sector satellite operators and other commercial space companies, comes amid increasing concern about Chinese and Russian development of anti-satellite weapons.
Space Force acquisition leaders were already looking to see if they could shift some of their biggest programs to use commercial services or technology, but one of President Donald Trump's executive orders, signed April 9, that could super-charge that effort.
The Space Force took its first tentative steps last month toward leveraging commercial space providers to augment military capabilities with four small, short-term contracts to enhance space domain awareness.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman offered a vote of confidence in the ability of America’s defense base to produce space-based missile interceptors.
AURORA, Colo.—When Soldiers and Sailors went to work constructing a floating pier in Gaza last year, the U.S. Space Force monitored their security using civilian satellite intelligence. The Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking, or TacSRT program—first discussed at last year’s AFA...
It’s often said commanders have an insatiable appetite for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. When it comes to space, commercial capabilities are helping to at least whet that appetite, Space Force commanders said at the Spacepower Conference this week.
For the Space Force and the U.S. writ large, the mission of position, navigation, and timing has become synonymous with three letters: GPS. That is likely to change in the coming years, as service officials described plans this week for a whole host of alternative ...
The Space Force is finalizing its first contracts for the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve and plans to award them early in 2025—giving the service access to commercial satellites and other space systems in times of conflict or crisis—officials said Nov. 21.
The Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a U.S. industry-run nonprofit that helps commercial space operators share data about cyberattacks and other threats, is expanding to the U.K. and other American allies, aiming to build a global organization that will protect civilian space assets as ...
The Space Force used commercial satellite services to support the withdrawal of U.S. forces from air bases in Niger this summer, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said Sept. 17—a key milestone in the service’s efforts to integrate commercial capabilities into operations and ...
Time is running out for the Pentagon to fully integrate commercial space capabilities into its architectures as it said it would in its April strategy, former officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The Space Force hopes to finish calibrating and operationalize its newest weather satellite this fall, the head of Space Systems Command’s space sensing directorate said. Beyond that, Col. Robert Davis hinted that the future of space-based environmental monitoring may largely come from commercial satellites and ...