The Space Force issued contracts to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance worth more than $1 billion to launch military space missions starting in fiscal 2027.
SpaceX
Defense Department officials are engaged in “active debate” over the future of the Space Force’s data transport architecture and hope to have a decision on the way ahead in time for the fiscal 2027 budget’s release next year.
The Space Development Agency is ready to start launching operational satellites—and launch and launch again over the next 10 months. Twenty-one of SDA’s low-Earth orbit satellites are scheduled to launch shortly after 7 a.m. Pacific time on Sept. 10. The...
GPS III Space Vehicle-08 lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., May 30.
A new RAND report shares lessons for U.S. policymakers based on how Ukrainian and Russian forces used space systems over three years of war.
In the Space Force’s push to increase its consumption of commercial satellite capabilities, satellite communications stands out as the template. The question now is how broadly the Space Force will look to leverage additional SATCOM providers.
The Space Force is switching up rockets for its next GPS mission—and trying to go faster than ever in preparing the satellite for launch. The goal is to take the satellite bus from storage to orbit in around three months, well ahead of the 24 months ...
The Space Force awarded three contracts for rocket launches worth up to a combined $13.68 billion on April 4—and the usual players SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have got some competition in the form of newcomer Blue Origin.
An F-22 pilot with more than 200 combat hours in the Middle East is trading places on the International Space Station with the first Space Force Guardian to ever launch into orbit. Air Force Maj. Nichole Ayers safely arrived at the ISS early March 16, ...
As the number of crewed spaceflights ticks up, the Air Force expects to train more of its C-17 transport crews to help pluck astronauts out of the water as part of its Human Space Flight Support mission
Frank Kendall, the most consequential Air Force Secretary in years, departed the Pentagon in January at the end of an eventful three-and-a-half-year tenure as the 26th Secretary of the Air Force. His most important contribution, he thinks: Raising “a sense...
Danger Zone “It’s a different world when China, Russia and the U.S. all have a thousand-plus nuclear weapons in the field. It gets more dangerous as there’s other countries that are proliferating weapons. It gets more dangerous as people think...
