The Space Force aims to boost its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program from 12 launches in fiscal 2023 to 21 missions in 2024, with United Launch Alliance (ULA) responsible for 11 missions and SpaceX handling 10.
The Space Force is opening up its competition for rocket launches with a “dual-lane approach,” according to a new draft request for proposals (RFP) from industry—potentially giving smaller companies more opportunities. Late Feb. 16, the service released the draft RFP and announced it would be hosting ...
The Department of the Air Force’s biggest acquisition accounts generally kept costs down in fiscal 2021 compared to the year before, even as the programs' projected timelines continued to lengthen, a new DAF report found. In particular, the report showed significant cost savings in the ...
The Space Force is thinking ahead to what it might need from rocket providers at the end of the decade, as it plans for the next phase of the National Security Space Launch program. The service released a request for information on Nov. 10 to ...
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s version of the fiscal 2021 defense spending bill looks to continue shaping the young Space Force with provisions on personnel and acquisition. Lawmakers are offering the Space Force $2.6 billion for operations and maintenance, $2.2 billion for procurement, and $10.4 billion ...
United Launch Alliance and SpaceX will continue in the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch program. Challengers Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin were left to hope for future military launch wins in subsequent competitions. ULA will provide the rockets for 60 percent of Space Force ...
House appropriators are planning to offer the Pentagon $694.6 billion for operations, personnel, and procurement, plus another $10.5 billion for military construction, in fiscal 2021. The Defense Department funding proposal is $1.3 billion higher than DOD received in fiscal 2020, but nearly $4 billion lower ...
A year after the House Armed Services Committee passed its fiscal 2020 defense policy bill in an unusually partisan fashion, the panel appears to be taking a step back from major fireworks and aerospace programmatic shifts in its 2021 legislation. The full committee’s version of ...
A new report by RAND Corp. argues the national security space enterprise would benefit from having three launch providers offering heavy lift services over the next few years, before downsizing to two to meet the Space Force’s long-term needs. RAND believes that as the United ...
The Space Force and United Launch Alliance successfully launched the sixth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., around 4:15 p.m. March 26. AEHF-6, the final piece of the protected satellite comms constellation, will reach its destination after about ...
The Space Force’s first launch under the National Security Space Launch program is moving forward, despite the threat of coronavirus, to put the sixth and final Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite on orbit March 26. By adding the sixth AEHF satellite, U.S. troops should expect ...
Step aside, fighter jets: Autonomous drones and manned spaceflight are the future of military aerospace, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 28. Musk, the serial entrepreneur and billionaire whose rockets take Pentagon sensors and satellites to space, ...