{"id":9729,"date":"2025-10-09T19:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/u-s-space-force-picks-blue-origin-bid-for-expanding-satellite-processing-at-cape-canaveral\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T19:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:50:12","slug":"u-s-space-force-picks-blue-origin-bid-for-expanding-satellite-processing-at-cape-canaveral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/u-s-space-force-picks-blue-origin-bid-for-expanding-satellite-processing-at-cape-canaveral\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Space Force picks Blue Origin bid for expanding satellite processing at Cape Canaveral"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn, SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 and ULA\u2019s Vulcan rockets launch from their respective pads. Image: Blue Origin, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Getting newer and increasingly more capable assets in space for U.S. service members and allies is a primary goal for the U.S. Space Force. Among the challenges to bolstering America\u2019s various on orbit capabilities though is having space on Earth to get them ready for launch.<\/p>\n

To help with processing spacecraft in Florida, the U.S. Space Force\u2019s (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) tapped Blue Origin to construct a new payload processing facility (PPF) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) is scheduled for \u201cearly calendar year 2028,\u201d according to an SSC Assured Access to Space (AATS) spokesperson.<\/p>\n

The National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Space Vehicle (SV) Processing Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) contract is valued at $78.25 million with the facility set to be located on CCSFS property as opposed to Blue Origin\u2019s campus at Rocket Park, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis second CSO award reflects our continued commitment to meet both national security and commercial launch requirements,\u201d said USSF Col. Dan Highlander, Director of Operations Integration for SSC\u2019s Assured Access to Space directorate in a statement.<\/p>\n

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NASA\u2019s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), a space telescope, is situated on a work stand ahead of prelaunch operations at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. SPHEREx will enter a polar orbit around Earth and create a 3D map of the entire sky, gathering information about millions of galaxies for scientists to study what happened after the big bang, the history of galaxy evolution, and the origins of water in planetary systems in our galaxy. Image: BAE Systems\/Benjamin Fry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the second such contract awarded, following a $77.5 million agreement with Astrotech announced in April that will expand its footprint at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. An AATS spokesperson said the CSO contracting process was closed on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture requirements for additional payload processing capabilities will be addressed as part of USSF\u2019s budget when Congressional appropriations are enacted for Fiscal Year 2026,\u201d the spokesperson said in a statement to Spaceflight Now.<\/p>\n

The CSO contract received a total of 12 proposals for capabilities at both the Eastern and Western Ranges. Five of those were for specifically Eastern Range needs.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin\u2019s new facility will include space for \u201cseveral pre-launch preparatory activities\u201d that include charging batteries; fueling satellites; loading other gaseous and fluid commodities; and encapsulation. To accomplish those tasks, Blue Origin will create \u201ca clean, secure, specialized high-bay facility capable of handling flight hardware, toxic fuels, and explosive materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AATS spokesperson said the new Blue Origin payload processing facility is \u201cdesigned to accommodate up to 16 missions per year.\u201d Among those, they said the Space Force anticipates capacity for an additional seven or eight NSSL missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis additional capacity will ensure the USSF is able to continue to deliver responsive and resilient launch capabilities to the warfighter, and the public-private partnership behind the new capacity enables us to cost-share with commercial industry to our mutual benefit,\u201d Highlander said.<\/p>\n

New space, new partnerships<\/h4>\n

While Blue Origin is the company that will spearhead the creation of this new PPF, it won\u2019t bar other launch providers from using the space.<\/p>\n

An AATS spokesperson said the facility would accommodate all NSSL payloads across the various launch providers at the Cape, which currently include Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. The latter two were each recently chosen to fly mission for the second order year of the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 contract.<\/p>\n

In March, SSC onboarded both Rocket Lab and Stoke Space for the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 contract, which allows companies to bid for missions annually that have less stringent launch requirements. Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA are also part of this contract with SpaceX winning the first two Launch Service Task Orders (LSTOs), valued at $733.6 million, in October 2024.<\/p>\n

Stoke aims to launch its first Nova rocket from Launch Complex 14 at the Cape beginning in 2026. Rocket Lab aims to launch its first Neutron rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island in Virginia before the end of the year and currently has no plans to launch from Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to work with the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command to construct a new Payload Processing Facility supporting multiple launch vehicle providers on Florida\u2019s Space Coast,\u201d a Blue Origin spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cThis partnership will enhance Blue Origin\u2019s capabilities to operate more efficiently and expand our capacity to support a higher launch cadence to meet customer needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

An AATS spokesperson said that the USSF anticipates the interagency agreements that it has with the National Reconnaissance Office and NASA for coordination on use of their PPFs will be extended to the one being built by Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlue Origin will be able to schedule and utilize the facility for their commercial customers as well, including potential Government use of commercial capabilities,\u201d that spokesperson said as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn, SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 and ULA\u2019s Vulcan rockets launch from their respective pads. Image: Blue Origin, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance Getting newer and increasingly more capable assets in space for U.S. service members and allies is a primary goal for the U.S. Space Force. Among the challenges to bolstering America\u2019s various on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[856,509,605,316,560,363],"class_list":["post-9729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-assured-access-to-space","tag-blue-origin","tag-space-systems-command","tag-spacex","tag-u-s-space-force","tag-ula"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}