Tag: Military
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Space Force clears Blue Origin and Stoke Space to bid for fast-turnaround launches
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and Stoke Space’s Nova rocket. (Blue Origin / Stoke Space Illustrations) The U.S. Space Force has added Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture and Stoke Space, a startup that’s headquartered nearby in Kent, Wash., to a list of eligible providers for rapid-response, small-satellite launch services. The designation means the two…
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Blue Origin joins SpaceX and ULA on Pentagon list for $5.6B in launch contracts
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on the rise. (Blue Origin Illustration) The Department of Defense has put Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin in the running for a share of up to $5.6 billion in national security space launch contracts, marking a first for Jeff Bezos’ space venture. The decision means Blue Origin’s…
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Gravitics plans to leverage space station architecture for $1.7M Space Force project
An artist’s conception shows a Gravitics space station module in orbit. (Gravitics Illustration) Marysville, Wash.-based Gravitics says it will work with Rocket Lab USA and other partners to adapt its space station architecture for the U.S. Space Force under the terms of a $1.7 million contract. The contract was awarded through the 2023 SpaceWERX Tactically…
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Three Pacific Northwest space companies win awards from Space Force venture fund
An artist’s conception shows Gravitics’ space module in orbit. (Gravitics Illustration) SpaceWERX, which essentially serves as a venture fund for the U.S. Space Force, has awarded contracts worth as much as $1.7 million each to 18 companies — including three startups headquartered in the Seattle area. The Washington state awardees are Marysville-based Gravitics, which is…
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Integrate raises $3.4M and wins Space Force contract for management software
An artist’s conception shows the Space Systems Command’s SpaceDEN facility. (U.S. Space Force Illustration) Seattle-based Integrate says it has raised $3.4 million in funding and secured a $1.25 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to boost its program management software platform into a higher orbit. The year-old startup has also brought Firefly Aerospace on…
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How power is blazing a trail for America’s space effort — and for nuclear startups
An artist’s conception shows a nuclear thermal propulsion system at work in orbit (USNC-Tech Illustration) As more and more hardware goes into Earth orbit, and eventually to the moon and Mars, where will the power to run all those machines come from? That’s one of the questions under consideration at a State of the Space…
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Defense Innovation Unit explores Pacific Northwest’s national security tech frontier
Mike Madsen, the Defense Innovation Unit’s acting director, talks at a Seattle workshop. (NSIN via Twitter) If space is the next frontier for national security, then the Pacific Northwest may well be the new frontier for that next frontier. That’s the word from Steve “Bucky” Butow, an Air Force brigadier general who is now director…
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Boeing-built X-37B space plane lands after completing record 908-day orbital mission
The X-37B space plane lands at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Boeing / U.S. Space Force Photo) The U.S. Space Force’s Boeing-built X-37B space plane today completed yet another record-setting mission, landing like an airplane at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida 908 days after it was launched. This was the sixth mission in…
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Microsoft and Amazon take on new roles in Pentagon’s space communication plans
The Pentagon is working with commercial ventures to upgrade space-based networks. (Microsoft Illustration) Microsoft Azure Space, Amazon Web Services and Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite network are now among the Pentagon’s partners in a campaign to upgrade space- and ground-based communications infrastructure for national security purposes. The Defense Innovation Unit has awarded contracts to those three…
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Falcon 9 launches Germany’s SARah-1 from Vandenberg
Germany’s SARah-1 military radar Earth observation satellite launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday. The launch, which was the 25th flight of the Falcon 9 this year, occurred at 7:19 AM PDT (14:19 UTC) – less than 24 hours after Friday’s Starlink 4-19 launch from the Kennedy Space…