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 six-hour coast and deorbit burn test was requested by the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate the Falcon 9 can deliver national security payloads directly to geosynchronous Earth orbit.
The Air Force’s WGS-10 satellite was launched aboard a Delta IV Medium in March 2019.
York Space Systems won a $12,800,000 U.S. Air Force contract in July to build a microsatellite called Tetra-3.
The Air Force planned a Phase 2 award under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement to select two launch providers.
The Air Force plans to select two launch providers and award each a five-year contract in the third quarter of fiscal year 2020.
The U.S. Air Force will release a revised request for proposals for the procurement of national security launch services in response to a Government Accountability Office ruling dated 2019-11-18.
An Atlas V launched the Air Force AEHF-5 satellite in August 2019.
The Air Force’s 2019-05-03 request for proposals stated it would make two awards by selecting two independently developed proposals that, when combined, offered the best value to the government.
The National Reconnaissance Office began as a secret program in 1960 established jointly by the U.S. Air Force and the CIA.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center announced the acceptance of WGS-10 on 2019-11-26.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center is acquiring a more advanced WGS spacecraft dubbed WGS-11+.
The Air Force and Boeing are negotiating the terms of a $605,000,000 deal that Boeing was awarded in April to produce WGS-11+.
The Air Force signed cost-sharing agreements in October 2018 with Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, and United Launch Alliance to help pay for vehicle development and launch infrastructure.
The Air Force request for proposals stated it would select two providers whose proposals, when combined, offer the best value to the government and that those two providers would split launches 60/40 over a five-year contract.
The Air Force agreed to provide Blue Origin $500,000,000 between 2019 and 2024 to cover some costs of preparing the New Glenn rocket and related infrastructure to support military launches.
Morpheus Space did not win the Air Force contract directly but won it as part of a team with a U.S. firm.
In NSSL Phase 2 the Air Force intends to award two five-year contracts in mid-2020.
The Air Force issued a request for proposals for NSSL Phase 2 on 2019-05-03 that stated it would make two awards by picking two independently developed proposals that, "when combined," offered the best value to the government.
The U.S. Air Force awarded Capella Space a $50,000 SBIR Phase I contract prior to Air Force Space Pitch Day.
The Office of Space Commerce is implementing an open-architecture data repository designed to combine Air Force tracking data with data from other sources to identify potential close approaches.