The U.S. Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, established in December 2019. Its primary role is to organize, train, and equip space forces to protect U.S. and allied interests in space by ensuring space superiority. The USSF manages space launch operations, satellite operations, space environment surveillance, and satellite defense, and partners with organizations like NASA on space domain awareness and planetary defense. Key areas of focus include missile warning, satellite communications, and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The consolidation of command under U.S. Space Forces-Space is intended to improve the Space Force’s ability to deploy space-based assets quickly and effectively.
ALISIO-1 launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
SpaceX targeted Tuesday, 2023-12-12 at 8:14 p.m. ET for Falcon Heavy’s launch of the USSF-52 mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
USSF-52 includes an unclassified experiment called NASA’s Seeds-2 project to test the effects of radiation and long-duration spaceflight on plant seeds.
Saltzman stated that the Space Force is moving beyond the establishment phase.
SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, 2023-12-12 for a Falcon 9 launch of 23 second-generation Starlink V2 Mini internet satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Orbital Micro Systems was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research Phase II Other Transaction Authority agreement by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency.
Saltzman said that the Space Force is integrating space and joint operations and educating other theater components on the role of space in conflict.
The Space Force has funding for a second EWS satellite that would launch in 2028.
Another launch of 22 Starlink V2 Mini internet satellites is scheduled for 2023-12-13 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Saltzman highlighted the need for innovation and empowering ideas from all ranks within the Space Force.
The Space Force submitted a proposal to Congress for a new personnel management system that would offer more flexibility in positions.
The Space Force is open to considering partial commercial solutions that provide roughly 60% to 80% of required weather-data capability.
Falcon Heavy had been scheduled to launch the U.S. Space Force’s robotic X-37B space plane from Florida on Monday night, 2023-12-11.
SpaceX targeted Tuesday, 2023-12-12 at 8:14 p.m. ET for Falcon Heavy’s launch of the USSF-52 mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Wednesday, 2023-12-13 for Falcon Heavy to launch USSF-52 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Falcon Heavy had been scheduled to launch the U.S. Space Force’s X-37B space plane from Florida on Monday night, 2023-12-11, at 8:24 p.m. EST.
Orbit Fab plans to establish its in-space refueling business by providing hydrazine for the U.S. Space Force Tetra-5 spacecraft.
NASA, the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are improving Earth-observation measurement location accuracy to the millimeter with new laser retroreflector arrays (LRAs).
SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, 2023-12-12 at 8:14 p.m. ET for a Falcon Heavy launch of the USSF-52 mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.