Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, who has been charged to establish the new Space Force Futures Command, said cislunar and dynamic space operations are areas for the command's scrutiny, since neither have yet proven their 'military utility."
Lars Hoffman, Blue Origin's vice president of national security sales, said that a viable commercial market for space mobility and logistics "doesn't exist right now."
"People need to have a realistic expectation of the demand signal," said Col. Joyce Bulson, who heads Space Systems Command's servicing, mobility and logistics program, stressing that the service is "looking to leverage commercial services to the maximum extent possible, so we're not looking for a significant government investment in bringing these capabilities to bear."
"We can't expect to bridge the valley of death through S&T programs, and industry accelerator programs. ... We need to identify and prioritize resources, funding and personnel," said Diane Howard, National Space Council head of commercial space policy.
Northrop Grumman has been working the Space Systems Command, DARPA and the Defense Innovation Unit to develop the capabilities to refuel and service satellites on orbit under several different study efforts.
The Mitchell Institute is advocating that from now on Congress bolster the Space Force's budget by "about $250M a year" and "increase end strength by approximately 200 personnel for the new responsibilities associated with emerging national interests on the moon and the cislunar region."
"In a sense, we drive our satellites today as if we're going to church. Our adversaries drive their satellites as if they're going to combat," Lt. Gen. John Shaw, who recently retired from US Space Command, told Breaking Defense in this Q&A.
Technologies being explored include "lunar power; mining and commercial in-situ resource utilization; communications, navigation, and timing; transit, mobility, and logistics; and construction and robotics," according to DARPA.
Long-range, high-speed optical communications will be critical for the service's plans for a "hybrid architecture" that would see networks of old and new military satellites, as well as commercial and allied networks, all communicating seamlessly to shift vast quantities of data around the world in near real-time.
"Telling me: 'I'm creating a monster, but putting it in your closet,' still means I have a monster in my closet. And I'd really rather not have a monster in my closet," an industry representative told Breaking Defense.
The Biden administration's plan came, in part, in response to a different congressional proposal about how to divvy up heavenly authorities, sources told Breaking Defense.
While the new Russian satellite didn't get super close to any others, its behavior "could be considered unfriendly," said Slingshot's Audrey Schaffer, who until recently served as the director of space policy at the National Security Council.
"Right now, the position of my combatant commander is: 'I wanna move, I wanna refuel, I wanna have life-extension and I wanna live'," SpRCO Director Kelly Hammett told Breaking Defense.
Space Doctrine Publication 3.0, crafted by STARCOM, provides baseline definitions for offensive, defensive, and "mobility and logistics" ops.
The robotic arms built by the Naval Research Laboratory to be carried on a SpaceLogistics Mission Robotic Vehicle are designed to operate "autonomously" to do "inspection, orbital adjustment, repair and upgrade" missions on spacecraft "that were not designed to be grappled," Bill Vincent, the lab's program manager, told Breaking Defense.