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.
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Boeing will deliver the 11th satellite of the Wideband Global Satellite Communication (WGS) constellation to the U.S. Air Force by 2024.
The Air Force had almost $800,000,000 allocated for its SBIR program in 2019.
David Shahady moved into his role directing the Air Force SBIR and STTR programs in late 2015.
The WGS-11 satellite is being acquired with funds Congress inserted into the fiscal year 2018 budget that the Air Force had not requested.
Air Force Space Pitch Day was held in San Francisco in November 2019 where 30 companies received a total of $22,500,000 in SBIR funding.
Air Force General John "Jay" Raymond, commander of U.S. Space Command, will serve as the first Chief of Space Operations who will become a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by December 2020.
The U.S. Space Force plans to rename principal Air Force bases that house space units to match the mission of the base.
Civilians will continue to work under the Department of the Air Force regardless of assignment to air or space elements and are not required to transfer service status.
The U.S. Space Force will continue to rely heavily on the U.S. Air Force to operate and maintain renamed space bases.
Renaming Air Force installations as Space Force bases is one of seven recommendations from the Space Force Planning Task Force intended to show visible progress toward establishing the U.S. Space Force.
The Space Force Planning Task Force is a group of about 40 people led by Air Force Maj. Gen. Clinton Crosier that spent eight months preparing for establishment of the U.S. Space Force.
The 2019-12-02 memo requested transfers to the Space Force for fiscal year 2020 including $9,300,000,000 from Air Force space-related weapons systems and operations.
Air Force installations that primarily perform space missions would be renamed Space Force bases.
In May 2018 congressional appropriators added $600,000,000 to the Air Force’s budget to procure two additional WGS satellites that the Department of Defense had not requested.
The U.S. Air Force awarded Lunar Resources a $750,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 contract with RSA as a subcontractor.
In Fiscal Year 2019 defense appropriators directed the Air Force to develop an integrated architecture that should include government and commercial space systems.
The Air Force small launch directorate carried out five missions in 2019, including STP-2 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy and the Ascent Abort-2 flight test from a modified Peacekeeper missile.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center small launch division is preparing to launch nine missions in 2020.
The Air Force is reviewing bids and expects to award a contract in 2020 for STP-S28, the first mission of the Orbital Services Program-4 (OSP-4).
The nine missions planned by the Air Force small launch division in 2020 more than double the number of launches conducted by the division in 2019.