It’s one of the coolest titles in the US military — space architect! Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced Tuesday night there will again be a space architect, known as the Chief Architect.

When China published its description of SJ-17, the folks at AGI who track satellites for a living raised their eyebrows. The Chinese said it was an experimental satellite. But “the way they phrased it piqued our interest,” says Bob Hall, standing a dozen feet from AGI’s infamous ice cream stand here.

SPACE SYMPOSIUM: The Air Force, eager to get inside the decision cycle of China and Russia, is pressing ahead hard and fast to substantially speed space acquisition. In what is something of a test case for the service, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson last night committed to building the next generation of missile warning satellites,… Keep reading →

After years of missed deadlines, cost overruns and underperformance the Air Force has split the requirements for the troubled Joint Mission System program’s Increment 3, dividing them between the Coalition Space Operations Center and the National Space Defense Center. In a separate but apparently related action, the Air Force has also partnered with the nation’s spy satellite builder to create a new Space Situational Awareness satellite.

Over the last 18 months the Air Force and Army have charged ahead on multi-domain and only Lockheed Martin has spoken publicly about its efforts to win related contracts. Today that changed as Raytheon’s VP Todd Probert sat down with me here to discuss how important Multi Domain is to his company.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten has always wanted to spend time at the house he and his wife bought years ago in Colorado Springs — but he’s too busy with, among other things, alerts of missile launches around the globe, just in case one is US-bound. You’d think the former head of Space Command, now… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: After three years during which it’s been the Air Force’s greatest problem child, Raytheon’s next-generation ground control system for GPS satellites is back on track, the company’s top man on the program says. Ellen Lord, the head of Pentagon acquisition, and Will Roper, head of Air Force acquisition, met with Bill Sullivan and other… Keep reading →