The head of the Space Force’s largest acquisition organization said the service needs a third spaceport to support medium and heavy launch by 2030—a goal he called “aspirational” even as he stressed the importance of building out the U.S. military’s launch infrastructure.
Space Systems Command
After scrapping a long-delayed program to build a next-generation GPS ground system earlier this year, the Space Force and prime contractor Lockheed Martin are pushing toward delivery of the capability in time to support the first launch of the newest GPS satellites, currently planned for ...
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.
A new collaborative digital environment could change the way the Space Force—and possibly the broader Defense Department—designs and tests capabilities.
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.
The Space-Based Air Moving Targeting Indicator awards, announced Aug. 4, went to Rocket Lab, Systems & Technology Research, and a third firm whose name the service withheld “due to operational security.”
Space Systems Command on July 27 announced a $287 million award to Sphinx Defense to develop a mission planning prototype for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program’s ground segment.
The Space Force is moving forward with a series of experiments to test ideas for broadening its narrowband satellite communication mission to medium-Earth orbit, and a new notice to industry seeks commercial satellites to help demonstrate the viability of a future hybrid architecture.
The Space Force is tripling the size of one of its main launch procurement contracts from $5.6 billion to $17 billion to accommodate growing demand from government customers.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman is warning lawmakers that the Space Force may eventually have to limit the number of launches it can support each year without additional resources to manage surging demand at its spaceports.
The Space Force started its second live Tactically Responsive Space mission June 19, working with a contractor to launch a satellite to low-Earth orbit in less than 17 hours. That spacecraft will now conduct a series of maneuver demonstrations with another vehicle.
The Space Force awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract on May 29 to build a constellation of satellites that can sense and track airborne targets from orbit.