The Navy-led TacSat-4 experimental communications satellite program, under the Operationally Responsive Space joint office at Kirtland AFB, N.M., launches aboard a Minotaur IV+ booster from Kodiak, Alaska. TacSat-4’s planned one-year mission is to enable ground troops to remain in contact via legacy hand-held radios even when they are operating in difficult mountainous and urban terrain in Southwest Asia.
The Space Force expects to award $905 million in contracts over the next five years through a new Maneuverable GEO program, which aims to form a commercial fleet of mobile communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

