Tag: US Space Force
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Vulcan Centaur Set for November 13 Return to Flight, Carrying Amazon Satellites and a Military Verdict
The grounding traces to the same component failing the same way on two separate flights. Vulcan debuted on January 8, 2024. Its second flight, Cert-2 in October 2024, suffered the disintegration of a nozzle on one of its Northrop Grumman-built GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters. ULA investigated, identified contributing factors, and modified the nozzle design.…
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Space Force Activates Commercial Space Reserve, Signing Six Vendors for Surge Tracking
The move turns years of policy development into a usable tool. The Commercial Space Reserve functions as the space equivalent of a structured reserve, a defined way to pull private capacity into military operations on short notice. Going operational marks a milestone that converts policy discussion into an operational capability and a revenue path for…
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Space Force Plans $946 Million Sole-Source Award to Boeing for Satellite Sustainment
The Space Force determined that Boeing holds the proprietary technical data and software needed to carry out the sustainment and modernization effort, which the service used to justify awarding the contract without competition. The contract covers maintenance and modernization of military communications satellites as well as the associated ground systems. The total value is capped…
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Space Force-backed mission does its best impression of Top Gun in orbit
An ongoing military exercise happening hundreds of miles above Earth has—for the first time in an unclassified setting—demonstrated how future satellites might evade and pursue one another in a future conflict. That was the announcement Wednesday from True Anomaly, one of the companies involved in the exercise. True Anomaly’s Jackal satellite, also known as Panther,…
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This is the world’s most advanced robotic servicing satellite—that we know about
A spacecraft fitted with two flexible robotic arms is on the way to geosynchronous orbit after launching earlier this week on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, kicking off a planned decade-long mission to open new frontiers in satellite servicing. The Mission Robotic Vehicle, owned and built by Northrop Grumman, rocketed into orbit from Cape Canaveral…
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With new contracts, SpaceX will become the US military’s top launch provider
The US Space Force announced Friday it selected SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin for $13.7 billion in contracts to deliver the Pentagon’s most critical military satellites to orbit into the early 2030s. These missions will launch the government’s heaviest national security satellites, like the National Reconnaissance Office’s large, bus-sized spy platforms, and deploy…
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With new contracts, SpaceX will become the US military’s top launch provider
The US Space Force announced Friday it selected SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin for $13.7 billion in contracts to deliver the Pentagon’s most critical military satellites to orbit into the early 2030s. These missions will launch the government’s heaviest national security satellites, like the National Reconnaissance Office’s large, bus-sized spy platforms, and deploy…
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With Vulcan’s certification, Space Force is no longer solely reliant on SpaceX
The US Space Force on Wednesday announced that it has certified United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket to conduct national security missions. “Assured access to space is a core function of the Space Force and a critical element of national security,” said Brig. Gen. Panzenhagen, program executive officer for Assured Access to Space, in a news…
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Maybe Trump should go back to calling his missile shield the Iron Dome
The US Space Force celebrated its fifth birthday last year, when it boasted an annual budget of $29 billion, about 3.5 percent of the Pentagon’s overall funding level. On March 15, President Donald Trump signed a stopgap spending bill that set the Space Force’s budget for fiscal year 2025 at $28.7 billion. This was the…
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Space Force wants six kinds of space weapons—including anti-satellite lasers
DENVER—The US Space Force lacks the full range of space weapons China and Russia are adding to their arsenals, and military leaders say it’s time to close the gap. Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force’s chief of space operations, told reporters at the Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium last week that he wants…