Tucson-based Vector Launch, Virgin Orbit, and a “stealth” startup can compete for prizes up to $10 million in the DARPA Launch Challenge.

Let’s not get too carried away. “We’ve got to earn our way to cislunar,” Will Roper said with a chuckle. “We’ve got to prove we can do LEO and GEO well.” Still, “this isn’t too far fetched.”

US GSSAP satellites moved to within 10 kilometers of five Russian GEO-based satellites between 2016 and 2018, new Russian space observation data shows.

SPACE SYMPOSIUM: For the first time, the United States is sharing its space war plans, known as Olympic Defender, with a small number of allies, says the head of Strategic Command. Gen. John Hyten told us in a Monday evening interview that a new version of the plan was published “last December,” he said. “Everything that… Keep reading →

“Launching hundreds of cheap satellites each year as a substitute” for current milspace systems “will result in failure on America’s worst day if we relay on them alone,” Wilson says.

The space threat’s the thing at this year’s Space Symposium.

JMS was supposed to revolutionize how the US tracks objects in space. Its billion-dollar bust means the Air Force must revive SPADOC, a widely reviled vestige of the 1980s.

Modern space strategy, with its focus on resilience, requires “understanding the capabilities of each satellite and managing them as a constellation:” Jane Chappell, vice president of Raytheon’s Global Intelligence Solutions (GIS) mission area.

Indian claims of no threat from ASAT test debris is “nonsense.”

Congress should pass laws to ensure that the Pentagon fully commits to creating a “large, updatable, and resilient national security constellation” in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).