SMC

Space Force Awards NSTXL Space Consortium Contract

The Space & Missile Systems Center has reaffirmed its choice of NSTXL to manage the public-private Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), rejecting allegations by The Washington Post.

Space Force Wants $5B For Anti-Jam Satcoms

PTS is not a satellite per se, rather it is envisioned as a payload that could be carried by US military, commercial or even allied satellites.

SMC Seeks Multi-Domain Role Amidst Space Force Confusion

Now transferred from the Air Force to the nascent Space Force -- whose acquisition responsibilities remain unclear -- SMC says it can play a central role in future all-service Multi-Domain Operations.

Strong Space Acquisition Leader A Must: Wilson

Creation of the Space Development Agency was "disconnected from the threat and the needs of the warfighter," say Wilson, thus "highly unlikely to survive serious scrutiny."

Hey SDA, AFRL Boosts Space-Based Internet Tests

"I've never gotten a briefing from the Space Development Agency," Roper said, "so I don't know what their plan, I don't know what they're intending."

Air Force Testing Novel ISR Sensors For LEO Sats

Aerospace was able to build and test both sats within 16 months, and launch them after only 18 months -- a fraction of the average seven to eight years it traditionally has taken the service.

New SMC Focus: Space Control, ‘Domain Awareness’

SMC's new SSA Marketplace will be open for business in fourth quarter 2020 or first quarter 2021.

SMC Offers To Help Speed Deals For SDA

The Space & Missile Systems Center’s Space Enterprise Consortium has been so successful at providing competitive prototypes, fast, that SMC wants to expand its scope dramatically.

DARPA Blackjack: Who’ll Get Prized Satellite Tech, Air Force Or SDA?

Large networks of small, cheap satellites derived from commercial technology would be harder for China or Russia to kill than a handful of expensive, exquisite military-unique birds. But who gets to build it?

NRL’s LARADO Project Hopes To Track Tiny Space Debris

Navy Research Lab's LARADO (Laser-sheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation) project conjures images of a Wild West cattle drive, and in a way that is apropos as space scientists have long been attempting to wrangle better estimates of the population of on-orbit debris.

What Would Space Force FIX? No One Would Notice Its Disappearance

Born as what most thought was a joke in March 2018, President Trump’s Space Force had by June become a White House directive to the Pentagon. Since then the Trump Administration has been considering possible variants in the Force’s subordination, authorities, size, and budget, while Acting SecDef Shanahan has already created a working group to […]

Space Force & Command To Cost $13B For First Five Years: SecAF Memo

The scope of the Space Force appears to be growing, with a new Air Force memo spelling out all of the offices that will fall under the proposed new command.

Adversaries Could Have Fiddled With US Satellites: DoD IG

WASHINGTON: If Chinese and Russian spies have been doing their jobs well, they might well have been able to compromise some of America’s most important satellites, including the missile launch detection birds known as SBIRS. A report out today from the Pentagon’s Inspector General says that Air Force Space Command’s failure to safeguard its supply chain […]

Pence: ‘We Must Have American Dominance In Space’

The "separate but equal" sixth service (don't forget the Coast Guard) will be created in stages, because, as Pence finally admitted publicly, it "requires Congressional action." And, as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Paul Selva, admitted today, if Congress passed the relevant laws in a year that would "unprecedented."