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 U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center confirmed that the NROL-111 payloads were deployed successfully.
GPS 3 SV-07 is one of five missions funded in the Space Force’s $1,400,000,000 budget request for national security launch services for fiscal year 2022.
The Space Force requirement that the reused booster for the 2021-06-17 mission be the booster that flew a GPS 3 satellite last November applies only to that specific mission as the military gains comfort with reusability.
The U.S. Space Force initially ordered an expendable rocket for the 2021-06-17 GPS 3 mission but agreed to switch to a reused booster with the requirement that the reused booster had to be the one that flew another GPS 3 satellite to orbit last November.
Northrop Grumman successfully launched the Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) payload into orbit for the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center using the company’s Pegasus XL rocket.
The TacRL-2 payload was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket launched the U.S. Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) mission on 2021-06-13 at 1:11 a.m. Pacific from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
The U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Lockheed Martin-built GPS III Space Vehicle 05 satellite was encapsulated within a SpaceX payload fairing at Astrotech Space Operations Florida on 2021-06-09.
The Space Force was created on 2019-12-20.
The $15,300,000,000 in proposed 2022 space technology investments includes $6,800,000,000 for Space Force unclassified RDT&E.
The $15,300,000,000 in proposed 2022 space technology investments includes $4,500,000,000 for Space Force classified RDT&E.
A U.S. Space Force mission named TacRL-2 is scheduled to launch on 2021-06-13 as a monitoring satellite intended to provide space domain awareness.
The U.S. Space Force budget request for fiscal year 2022 is $17.4 billion, a 13.1% increase from 2020-10-01.
U.S. Space Force classified research and development funding would increase from $3,600,000,000 in 2021 to $4,500,000,000 in 2022.
The Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $28,000,000 contract for the TacRL-2 launch.
The Space Force’s procurement budget would grow by $456,000,000 to acquire National Security Space Launch Vehicles to assure access to space for national security and intelligence satellite launches.
The $15,300,000,000 in proposed 2022 space technology investments includes $2,700,000,000 for Space Force unclassified procurement.
The Space Force will have difficulties meeting its target launch date in 2025 for the first GEO Next-Generation OPIR satellite and completing launch of all five spacecraft by 2030.
Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will also be used for Terran R launches.
The first launch of Terran 1 is scheduled for late 2021 from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.