Tag: Space Force

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Space Force enlists Integrate for mission management

Person in military fatigues using Integrate software on a laptop
Integrate is supporting the modernization of program execution across space missions. (Integrate Photo)

Seattle-based Integrate has been awarded a $25 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to support the deployment of its multiplayer project management software for government teams — and for the commercial space contractors they’re working with.

The award marks a new chapter for the startup. It’s also a new chapter for the Space Force, which is keen to upgrade its tools for keeping track of high-stakes space initiatives such as the National Security Space Launch program.

Integrate CEO and co-founder John Conafay said his company’s software is analogous to “Google Docs for project management.” However, the mission gets more complicated when the software has to work in the secure environment required for national security projects.

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Blue Origin wins a share of Space Force launch contracts

New Glenn rocket rises from launch pad
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket rises up from its Florida launch pad in January. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has been awarded $2.4 billion in the U.S. Space Force’s latest round of procurement for future national security launches.

“It’s an honor and huge responsibility to team with the U.S. government to launch our nation’s most important assets,” Jarrett Jones, Blue Origin’s senior vice president for New Glenn, said today in a news release. “Through this partnership, we’re looking forward to delivering on a number of critical national security priorities.”

The newly announced round — which is known as National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 — also allotted $5.9 billion in contracts to SpaceX, and $5.4 billion to United Launch Alliance.

The launch contracts will cover about 54 missions, with contracts to be awarded between now and the end of fiscal year 2029. The launches themselves are expected to take place during a period running from fiscal year 2027 to 2032. SpaceX is expected to get 28 missions, ULA would get 19 missions, and Blue Origin would be awarded seven missions starting next year.

Blue Origin would use its New Glenn rocket, which had its first test launch in January and is due for its second launch by the middle of this year. For what it’s worth, New Glenn hasn’t yet been officially certified for national security launches, but the Space Force expects that to happen by next year. SpaceX would use its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, while ULA would use its Vulcan rocket.

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Space Force adds Stoke and Rocket Lab to launch list

Illustration: Stoke Space Nova rocket in flight
An artist’s conception shows Stoke Space’s Nova rocket in flight. (Stoke Space Illustration)

The U.S. Space Force has added Kent, Wash.-based Stoke Space and California-based Rocket Lab USA to the list of providers for its $5.6 billion round of national security launches.

Each company will receive a $5 million task order to assess its specific capabilities for future launches. Stoke and Rocket Lab join Jeff Bezos’ Kent-based Blue Origin space venture as well as SpaceX and United Launch Alliance on the Pentagon’s current launch service list, known as Phase 3 Lane 1. For this “lane,” the Space Force can select from those five providers during an ordering period that runs through mid-2029, with an option for a five-year extension.

Stoke Space is offering its fully reusable Nova rocket, while Rocket Lab is offering its Neutron rocket. Both of those launch vehicles are still in development and haven’t yet flown in space. Rocket Lab is planning its first Neutron launch in late 2025. Stoke’s first Nova launch could also come as early as this year.

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Gravitics wins Space Force support for orbital carrier

Illustration: Gravitics Orbital Carrier in space
An artist’s conception shows Gravitics’ Orbital Carrier with payloads ready for deployment. (Gravitics Illustration)

The U.S. Space Force has chosen Marysville, Wash.-based Gravitics to build and fly an orbital carrier that could deliver maneuverable space vehicles to the final frontier — and have them ready to respond to future threats.

The project will be supported by up to $60 million in funding, to be provided through the Space Force’s SpaceWERX STRATFI program. That funding would come from government sources as well as private sources, Gravitics said today in a news release.

“We’re honored to partner with the U.S. Space Force on this critical initiative.” Gravitics CEO Colin Doughan said. “The Orbital Carrier is a game-changer, acting as a pre-positioned launch pad in space. It bypasses traditional launch constraints, enabling space vehicle operators to rapidly select a deployment orbit on-demand.”

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Fiction Science Club

How future satellite wars will be fought — and won

Illustration: Surveillance satellites in orbit
An artist's conception shows satellites that are part of the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program. (Space Force Illustration)

Wars in space are no longer just science fiction. In fact, Space War I has been raging for more than two years, with no quick end in sight.

This isn’t the kind of conflict that involves X-wing fighters or Space Marines. Instead, it’s a battle over how satellites are being used to collect imagery, identify military targets and facilitate communications in the war between Ukraine and Russia.

“As I looked at Ukraine in the early months, it was obvious to me: This is the first space war,” says David Ignatius, a journalist who lives a double life as a foreign-affairs columnist for The Washington Post and a spy-thriller novelist.

In the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, Ignatius delves into the potential national-security threats posed by satellite-based warfare — and how he wove those threats into the plot threads of a new novel titled “Phantom Orbit.” The tale lays out a scenario in which Space War I tips toward a potentially catastrophic Space War II.

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Space Force gives a boost to Blue Origin and Stoke Space

Illustrations: Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket and Stoke Space's Nova rocket
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and Stoke Space’s Nova rocket. (Blue Origin / Stoke Space Illustrations)

The U.S. Space Force has added Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture and Stoke Space, a startup that’s headquartered nearby in Kent, Wash., to a list of eligible providers for rapid-response, small-satellite launch services.

The designation means the two rocket companies are cleared to compete for launches under the terms of the Space Force’s Orbital Services Program 4.

“OSP-4 is available to our partners across the DoD [Department of Defense] with an emphasis on small orbital launch capabilities and launch solutions for Tactically Responsive Space mission needs,” Lt. Col. Steve Hendershot, chief of the Space Systems Command’s Small Launch and Targets Division, said in a news release.

The OSP-4 contract has a $986 million ceiling for tasks to be awarded through October 2028. Seven missions have been awarded to date, amounting to more than $190 million. Last year’s Victus Nox mission, conducted in partnership with Firefly Aerospace and Millennium Space Systems, serves as an example of an OSP-4 project. Victus Nox was aimed at testing the Space Force’s ability to replace a damaged satellite in a short time frame.

Neither Blue Origin nor Stoke Space has launched an orbital mission yet, but the OSP-4 program is open to emerging providers that expect to be able to send payloads to orbit within a year or so.

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Pentagon adds Blue Origin to $5.6B launch list

Illustration: New Glenn launch
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on the rise. (Blue Origin Illustration)

The Department of Defense has put Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin in the running for a share of up to $5.6 billion in national security space launch contracts, marking a first for Jeff Bezos’ space venture.

The decision means Blue Origin’s orbital-class New Glenn rocket is now eligible to be selected for the Pentagon’s most sensitive launches, joining rockets offered by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.

The ordering period for what’s known as the Phase 3 Lane 1 procurement process runs through mid-2029, with an optional five-year extension. “This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, and seven offers were received,” the Department of Defense said in today’s contract award announcement.

“We’re honored by the opportunity to compete for these National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 missions with New Glenn,” a Blue Origin spokesperson told me in an email.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, named after the late NASA astronaut John Glenn, is still under development at the company’s facilities in Florida. New Glenn’s first launch is currently set for no earlier than September. It’s expected to send a pair of robotic probes to study Mars’ magnetosphere for NASA’s EscaPADE mission.

The amounts going to each of the three launch providers in the Phase 3 Lane 1 program will be determined by the task orders that go out for specific launches over the next five years.

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Starfish and Space Force lay out satellite docking plan

Illustration: Otter spacecraft in high Earth orbit
An artist’s conception shows the Otter spacecraft in geostationary Earth orbit. (Starfish Space Illustration)

The U.S. Space Force says a Pentagon partnership with Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space will result in a “first-of-its-kind docking mission” aimed at adding to the maneuverability of national security assets on orbit.

Starfish Space’s $37.5 million contract for a demonstration of the startup’s Otter satellite docking spacecraft was awarded two weeks ago, but the Space Force’s Space Systems Command released further details about the project today.

The Space Systems Command said its Assured Access to Space program will be working in partnership with Starfish Space as well as the Air Force Research Laboratory’s SpaceWERX program, Space Safari and the SSC Commercial Space Office to improve the responsiveness, resilience and strategic flexibility of U.S. space assets.

“This project is another step forward in delivering what our warfighters require in sustained space maneuver,” said Col. Joyce Bulson, director of servicing, mobility and logistics in the Assured Access to Space program.

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Starfish tests its first satellite and wins millions for more

Illustration: Otter Pup satellite in space
An artist’s conception shows the Otter Pup satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Months after Starfish Space said it was giving up on its plan to test its satellite docking system in orbit, due to a thruster failure, the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup managed to coax one last rendezvous out of its first space mission.

And this week brought more good news for Starfish Space, in the form of a $37.5 million contract from the U.S. Space Force for further work on its in-space rendezvous and docking technology.

Last month’s close encounter involving Starfish’s Otter Pup spacecraft and D-Orbit’s ION SCV006 satellite wasn’t as close as the original test plan called for, and it was up to ION to do all of the orbital maneuvering. Nevertheless, Starfish Space co-founder Trevor Bennett said the exercise brought Otter Pup’s mission to a successful close.

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Portal Space reveals plan for satellites fired up by the sun

Illustration: Portal Space Systems satellite bus in orbit
An artist’s conception shows Portal’s Supernova satellite bus in orbit. (Portal Space Systems Illustration)

A Seattle-area startup called Portal Space Systems is emerging from stealth to share its vision for a type of satellite that’s apparently never been put into space before: a spacecraft that uses the heat of the sun to spark its thrusters.

The technology, known as solar thermal propulsion, could be put to its first in-space test as early as next year.

“I’m not aware of anybody that has flown any system with solar thermal propulsion, in the U.S., or foreign for that matter,” Portal co-founder and CEO Jeff Thornburg told me. “I mean, it could have happened, but maybe no one’s aware of it.”

Bothell, Wash.-based Portal says it has already been awarded more than $3 million by the Defense Department and the U.S. Space Force to support the development of its Supernova satellite bus. In space industry parlance, a bus is the basic spacecraft infrastructure that supports a satellite’s payloads.

Supernova-based satellites would be equipped with a solar concentrator apparatus that focuses the sun’s rays on a heat exchanger. “It’s a very simple system,” Thornburg said. “You pass your monopropellant through a hot heat exchanger, and out comes thrust.”

The technology has the potential to give satellites much more mobility in orbit — which could smooth the way for applications ranging from rounding up orbital debris to responding to international crises.

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