Now that the Space Force has launched satellite into orbit on less than 17 hours’ notice, the companies operating the satellites involved in the mission involved say their space domain awareness and maneuver operations are progressing faster than expected.
The Space Force launched Victus Haze, its second live Tactically Responsive Space mission, June 19 on a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle from the company’s spaceport in New Zealand—just 16 hours and 42 minutes after the USSF issued launch orders. While the speed to liftoff broke a previous record hit during the first TacRS demonstration in 2023, the mission didn’t end there.
Through Victus Haze, the service wants to demonstrate dynamic space operations between two spacecraft—True Anomaly’s Jackal and Rocket Lab’s Puma satellite. Jackal launched in mid-May, a month before the Victus Haze mission as part of a SpaceX Transporter rideshare. Puma, though, was onboard the TacRS launch.
According to Rocket Lab, within 37 hours and 36 minutes of launch, Puma was fully activated and ready for its first orbital maneuver around Jackal. That timeline, the company said, was 34 hours ahead of the mission’s target of 72 hours.
Meanwhile, True Anomaly announced July 1 that Jackal completed its first operational Victus Haze sortie. The company also had a 72-hour deadline, which it met in 61 hours. According to the company, the mission included multiple circumnavigations of Puma, which was acting as a “noncooperative target spacecraft.” Jackal provided “multiaspect imaging and characterizations” to the Space Force and True Anomaly’s Mosaic software platform planned the sortie, commanded the satellite’s maneuvers and processed the imagery.
“Jackal performed exactly as designed, demonstrating precise propulsion burns and nominal ingress, successful closed-loop tracking, precision pointing, imaging and characterization of the target before egressing to its base orbit,” True Anomaly said in a statement. “From a new target’s launch to finished imagery, the mission clock ran in hours, not months.”
The company also said Jackal demonstrated precise propulsion burns and target characterization before returning to its “base” orbit.
The Space Force hasn’t said how long Victus Haze will last. In a June 22 statement, the service said it plans to use the satellites for live rendezvous proximity operations training. The successful mission could open the door to rapid satellite production contracts for both companies, but the service hasn’t discussed those plans in detail.
Space Systems Command’s Space Safari Office has at least three more TacRS missions schedule over the next two years to continue pushing schedule boundaries and to validate new concepts and technologies. Those named missions include:
- Victus Surgo, a mission cosponsored by the Defense Innovation Unit that will feature a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching a highly maneuverable spacecraft built by Impulse Space
- Victus Salo, another Falcon 9-supported mission that will carry a payload built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Victus Sol, launched by Firefly’s Alpha, which will carry an operational payload
The service also conducted a two-part tabletop exercise and field excursion called Victus Diem between summer 2025 and early 2026. The effort was designed to help solidify its responsive launch processes, like rapid payload processing.