CNBC reported the US Space Force “plans to buy even more rocket launches from companies in the coming years than previously expected, granting more companies a chance at securing billions in potential contracts.” Amid increasing need to improve “military capabilities in space,” the US plans to “almost triple the number of launches in Phase 3 that it bought in Phase 2 in 2020.”
Full Story (CNBC)
Tag: Space Force
Space Force to Require Two Missions Prior to Using ULA’s Vulcan Centaur Rocket
Aviation Week reported that “despite delays with United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur rocket, the U.S. Space Force will require two missions prior to using the booster for national security space (NSSL) missions.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
US Army Transfers Satellite Operations to Space Force
Space News reports that the US Space Force is to “take over control of the Wideband Global Satcom and Defense Satellite Communications System constellations of military satellites” from the US Army on Monday. The Army “shifted about $78 million to the Space Force’s 2022 budget to cover the cost of operating five satellite operations centers and four regional support centers. About 500 military and civilian personnel will transition from the Army to the Space Force’s Delta 8 unit based at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado.”
Full Story (Space News)
ULA’s Atlas 5 Launches Two Space Force Satellites to Test Early Warning Technology
CBS News reported that “after waiting out cloudy weather, the U.S. Space Force launched two satellites atop an Atlas 5 rocket Friday to test ballistic and hypersonic missile early warning and tracking technology and to deploy a maneuverable spacecraft carrying an unknown number of classified payloads.” United Launch Alliance’s 196-foot-tall rocket lifted off at 7:15 p.m. EDT from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, “knifing through low clouds and quickly disappearing from view as it streaked away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean. Eleven minutes later, the Aerojet Rocketdyne engine powering the rocket’s second stage completed the first of three planned firings designed to put the two satellites in a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator.” According to CBS News, the “trip was expected to take about six hours, ending early Saturday with the satellites’ deployment from the Centaur second stage.”
Full Story (CBS News)
Video
Atlas 5 rocket launch with U.S. Space Force experimental satellites, July 1, 2022
(Spaceflight Now via YouTube)
ULA to Launch US Space Force Satellites on Thursday
Spaceflight Now reports that United Launch Alliance (ULA) teams “at Cape Canaveral rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Wednesday, moving the launcher into position for liftoff Thursday evening with a pair of geostationary satellites for the U.S. Space Force.” The rollout “began shortly after 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), when the Atlas 5 emerged from the Vertical Integration Facility south of the launch pad. The 196-foot-tall (59.7-meter-tall) rocket rode a mobile launch platform along rail tracks to Space Launch Complex 41, the East Coast home of Atlas 5 launch operations.” Launch is set for 6 p.m. EDT Thursday, “the opening of a two-hour launch window. There is a 60% chance of favorable weather for Thursday’s launch window, according to the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Space Force Receives Near-Daily Launch Requests
Florida Today reports that the US Space Force “is seeing near-daily requests from launch providers so far in 2022, a dramatic increase over recent years as the military branch works with other federal organizations to find more efficiencies in how to support launches.” Requests to launch are expected “to top 300 this year, or nearly one a day.”
Full Story (Florida Today)
DARPA to Test Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft
Space News reported that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to “send to orbit a spacecraft powered by a nuclear propulsion system.” The technology “could give the U.S. military an advantage over enemies by making satellites more maneuverable and less vulnerable to attack.” DARPA’s Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2025.
Full Story (Space News)
Blue Origin Launch Delayed Due to Weather
SPACE reports that Blue Origin’s third crewed launch has been delayed due to weather. Windy conditions at Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas, have “push[ed] off liftoff of ‘Good Morning America’ (GMA) anchor Michael Strahan and five other individuals” to Saturday.
Full Story (SPACE)
NASA, Space Force See Benefits in Using Commercial Space Services
Space News reports that NASA Chief Economist Alexander MacDonald said private competition for NASA contracts is “one of the most exciting things that we’re seeing.” MacDonald said the announcement of privately designed commercial space stations to succeed the International Space Station are “very exciting from a market dynamics perspective.”
Full Story (Space News)
Space Force Selects Participants for Rocket Technology Projects
Space News reported that the US Space Force Space Systems Command announced Friday that United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and SpaceX “were selected to participate in technology development projects to advance rocket engine testing and launch vehicle upper stages.” The contracts, awarded to the companies by the Space Enterprise Consortium, are “for prototypes that will be jointly funded by the government and the contractors under partnerships known as OTAs, or other transaction authority.” According to Space News, the “contracts were split between current national security launch providers SpaceX and ULA, and new entrants Blue Origin and Rocket Lab that might compete in 2024 for the next round of national security launch service contracts.” ULA will receive “$24.3 million for uplink command and control for Centaur 5, the upper stage of the company’s new rocket Vulcan Centaur.”
Full Story (Space News)