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.
A Falcon 9 launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base deployed 52 satellites in low Earth orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink constellation earlier on 2023-03-17.
SES-18 and SES-19 were launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:38 p.m. local time on 2023-03-17.
The U.S. Space Force-led Enterprise Management and Control (EM&C) system aims to provide military users with flexible satcom options to switch services if one is interfered with.
In December 2020, the U.S. Space Force and Japan’s Office of National Space Policy agreed to launch two U.S. space sensor payloads for space domain awareness on Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System constellation.
Of the objects the Space Force tracks, about 7,100 are active payloads, a 37% increase from 2021 to 2022.
The Space Force currently tracks approximately 47,900 objects in space, a 16% increase in objects from 2021 to 2022.
The Space Force’s 2024 budget proposal includes about $340,000,000 for an operational testing and training infrastructure.
The U.S. Space Force plans to transition from reliance on geostationary satellites to proliferated networks of smaller satellites in low and medium Earth orbits.
Missile warning satellites absorbed more than $4,000,000,000 of the Space Force’s procurement budget in 2023.
WGS-11, the satellite funded in 2018, is scheduled to be delivered to the Space Force in 2024.
The fiscal year 2024 Space Force budget request of $30,000,000,000 is $3,700,000,000 more than the amount Congress enacted for the Space Force in 2023.
The Space Force budget increased to $26,300,000,000 in fiscal year 2023 due to internal funds transfers from the Space Development Agency and the Air Force plus a congressional add-on.
The Space Force had projected to order two GPS 3F satellites from Lockheed Martin in last year’s budget, but those orders were removed from the 2024 budget because they are not needed.
The Space Force’s $30,000,000,000 budget request allocates $1,200,000,000 for military personnel.
The Space Force’s $30,000,000,000 budget request allocates $4,700,000,000 for procurement.
The Space Force’s first budget in fiscal year 2021 was $15,300,000,000.
The Space Force’s $30,000,000,000 budget request allocates $4,900,000,000 for operations and maintenance.
The Space Force’s $30,000,000,000 budget request allocates $19,200,000,000 for research, development, testing, and engineering (RDT&E).
The Space Force budget grew to $18,000,000,000 in fiscal year 2022.
The Space Force eliminated one of three geostationary Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) satellites that it planned to buy.