The U.S. Air Force (USAF) plays a significant role in the space industry, historically serving as the Department of Defense's executive agent for space, and developing early military space programs and launch vehicles. Although the U.S. Space Force was established as an independent branch in 2019, the Air Force continues to contribute to space operations, including training personnel, research and development, and maintaining partnerships. The USAF's space-related activities encompass satellite operations, missile warning, communication support, and collaboration with allies to ensure regional stability. Key partners include the U.S. Space Force, other branches of the military, and international allies.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The Falcon 9 first stage that supported the 2019-07-25 launch first flew on the previous Dragon cargo launch on 2019-05-04 and landed at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The Air Force awarded Boeing and Northrop Grumman contracts to develop preliminary GBSD designs under the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction phase.
DSX was designed and built at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.
The U.S. Air Force announced in 2014 that 14 companies qualified for the Hosted Payload Solutions program.
Viasat has the opportunity to work with the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense to further develop, deploy, and demonstrate its Hybrid Adaptive Network concept with potential to provide future communications services to the government for multi-domain operations.
AFWERX is a U.S. Air Force program launched in 2017 that serves as a dual-purpose technology accelerator.
The U.K. will send eight people over the next 18 months to support the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
On 2019-07-11, United Launch Alliance rescheduled the Atlas 5 launch of the Air Force Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite planned for 2019-07-17 until no earlier than 2019-08-08.
On 2019-07-17, United Launch Alliance delayed the Delta 4 launch of an Air Force GPS satellite originally scheduled for 2019-07-25 until at least 2019-08-22.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center promoted a 'Summer of Launch '19' campaign to carry out four launches within 31 days between 2019-06-24 and 2019-07-25.
The administration proposed creating a Space Force headquarters in the Pentagon led by a four-star chief of staff, a four-star vice chief of staff, and an undersecretary of the Air Force for space.
The Air Force objects to the $500,000,000 certification and infrastructure fund and warned it could expose the service to having to make up to $1,500,000,000 available to companies that received Launch Service Agreement funding if they do not win Phase 2 contracts.
The House bill directs the Department of Defense and the Air Force to provide written notification of which companies won Phase 2 contracts at least 10 days before the selection is made public, including identification of selected providers, evaluation criteria used, total costs to the Air Force, and how investments in launch service providers were accounted for in the evaluation of offers.
The Air Force has been working with the administration to oppose the House’s Section 1601 provisions.
The House bill requires the Department of Defense and the Air Force to implement a plan from the 2017 NDAA regarding U.S. use of allied launch vehicles, including identifying satellites appropriate for allied launch vehicles and determining policy, certification requirements, and estimated cost and schedule to certify allied launch vehicles.
The Air Force planned in 2020 to select two Phase 2 providers to perform approximately 25 to 34 national security space launches from 2022 to 2026.
Col. Robert Bongiovi stated that the Air Force intends to work with only two launch providers over the five-year period of Phase 2 and plans to reintroduce competition in Phase 3 starting in 2025.
United Launch Alliance and Northrop Grumman have aligned themselves with the Air Force position on Phase 2, SpaceX supports retaining the $500,000,000 fund, and Blue Origin supports the provision to allow more competitors in Phase 2 after 29 launches.
The House bill establishing a U.S. Space Corps within the Department of the Air Force was approved as part of the HASC NDAA package.
The House bill requires the Air Force to provide Congress a detailed accounting of how much money each Phase 2 winner received in government subsidies no later than 45 days after the Air Force selects its two launch providers.