Tag: military space
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Sea Launch Revival Targets Range Bottlenecks and Defense Needs
Why Are Launch Companies Turning Back to the Ocean? Launch range congestion is driving renewed investment in sea-based platforms, with proponents citing two critical advantages: unlimited launch azimuths and enhanced military resilience against targeted strikes. Unlike fixed spaceports constrained by geography and air traffic, ocean platforms can position anywhere for optimal orbital insertions while avoiding…
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Observable Space Raises $90 Million Series A to Expand Space Tracking and Optical Systems
Observable Space has secured $90 million in Series A funding to expand production of its optical and laser-based space systems, while also supporting international growth beyond the United States. The funding round was led by Lux Capital and co-led by Upfront Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Island Green Capital and RTX Ventures. BRV Capital Management and…
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Space Force Gets $71B in Trump’s $1.45T Defense Budget
What does the Pentagon’s $1.45 trillion defense budget mean for Space Force? The U.S. Space Force will receive $71 billion under President Trump’s proposed $1.45 trillion defense budget for fiscal year 2027, Pentagon officials confirmed today. This represents a substantial allocation for military space operations as the service continues expanding its satellite constellation capabilities and…
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Space Systems Command Expands COMSO Working Capital Fund
How is Space Systems Command streamlining commercial space acquisitions? Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office (COMSO) is expanding its Working Capital Fund and finalizing Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) funding structures to accelerate commercial space acquisitions for national security missions. The initiative aims to reduce procurement timelines from traditional multi-year defense contracting cycles to months,…
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U.S. Space Force Updates Command Plan, Sets 2026 Commitments to Speed Capability Delivery
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) has updated its command plan and outlined key commitments for 2026, aiming to accelerate the delivery of resilient and combat-ready space capabilities as threats in orbit continue to grow. Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of SSC, presented the revised plan during a keynote address at AFCEA’s Space…
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China’s Guowang megaconstellation is more than another version of Starlink
US defense officials have long worried that China’s Guowang satellite network might give the Chinese military access to the kind of ubiquitous connectivity US forces now enjoy with SpaceX’s Starlink network. It turns out the Guowang constellation could offer a lot more than a homemade Chinese alternative to Starlink’s high-speed consumer-grade broadband service. China has…
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Do these Buddhist gods hint at the purpose of China’s super-secret satellites?
Mission patches are a decades-old tradition in spaceflight. They can range from the figurative to the abstract, prompting valuable insights or feeding confusion. Some are just plain weird. Ars published a story a few months ago on spaceflight patches from NASA, SpaceX, Russia, and the NRO, the US government’s spy satellite agency, which is responsible for…
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Weapons of war are launching from Cape Canaveral for the first time since 1988
The US military launched a long-range hypersonic missile Friday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a test flight that, if successful, could pave the way for the weapon’s operational deployment later this year. The Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon fired out of a canister on a road-mobile trailer shortly after sunrise on…
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Weapons of war are launching from Cape Canaveral for the first time since 1988
The US military launched a long-range hypersonic missile Friday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a test flight that, if successful, could pave the way for the weapon’s operational deployment later this year. The Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon fired out of a canister on a road-mobile trailer shortly after sunrise on…
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A military satellite waiting to launch with ULA will now fly with SpaceX
For the second time in six months, SpaceX will deploy a US military satellite that was sitting in storage, waiting for a slot on United Launch Alliance’s launch schedule. Space Systems Command, which oversees the military’s launch program, announced Monday that it is reassigning the launch of a Global Positioning System satellite from ULA’s Vulcan…