The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is the primary research and development center for the Department of the Air Force, playing a key role in developing warfighting technologies for air, space, and cyberspace. As an integrated lab, AFRL supports both the Air Force and the Space Force, providing solutions ranging from satellites and rocket fuel to advanced materials and manufacturing processes. AFRL partners with organizations like NASA, other government agencies, academia, and industry to conduct research, develop technologies, and test new concepts for space-based capabilities, including space weather observation and data transport. Key areas of focus include space vehicles, rocket propulsion, directed energy, and advanced materials for aerospace systems.
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The Air Force Research Laboratory funded the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3).
Gary Henry works with the Air Force Research Laboratory on concepts for using rockets for point-to-point cargo delivery under a $102 million, five-year contract awarded in 2020.
NTS-3 is an experiment funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory to broadcast positioning, navigation, and timing signals from geostationary Earth orbit.
The 1,250-kilogram NTS-3 satellite was built by L3Harris under an $84,000,000 contract awarded in 2018 by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
AFRL and MITRE Corp. developed a reprogrammable software-defined receiver that will allow users to receive both legacy GPS and the new NTS-3 signals.
The NTS-3 satellite integrates an agile positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) payload onto a Northrop Grumman ESPAStar bus to provide a space platform for AFRL and partner organization experiments and integrated capability demonstrations.
NTS-3 is managed by the AFRL Transformational Capabilities Office and has program partners in both the U.S. Space Force and the U.S. Air Force.
AFRL and L3Harris are completing remaining intra-payload and payload-to-bus functional and performance tests for NTS-3, including the first radio frequency broadcast tests of the novel PNT signals.
The Air Force Research Laboratory plans to launch a demonstration mission to deep space in 2025 to detect and track objects near the moon that cannot be viewed optically from Earth or from satellites in traditional orbits.
L3Harris Technologies delivered the NTS-3 space vehicle to an Air Force Research Laboratory integration and test facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.
Northrop Grumman completed ground tests in December of technology for space-based solar power and plans a space demonstration in 2025 under a contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) was awarded a $406,000,000 contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate for the Intelligence Systems Infrastructure, Tools and Enhancements (InSITE) program.
The Oracle project was awarded through the Air Force Research Laboratory utilizing the Space Enterprise Consortium OTA vehicle managed by NSTXL.
BAE Systems received a $12,000,000 Phase 2 contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to further develop a low-cost, all-weather, multi-mode (radar/infrared) open-architecture seeker under the Maritime Weapon Innovation Program Joint Capability Technology Demonstration.
Cognitive Space has been working with the Air Force Research Laboratory to apply its technology to the operation of a hybrid architecture of government and commercial remote-sensing satellites.
The Oracle project was awarded through the Air Force Research Laboratory using the Space Enterprise Consortium OTA vehicle managed by NSTXL.
Jack Shelton and a group of space attorneys, in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory, are establishing the Association of Commercial Space Professionals as a public benefit company to offer affordable regulatory and legal resources for space startups.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Northrop Grumman a $100,000,000 contract in 2018 to develop a payload to demonstrate key components of a prototype space solar power system.
VentureScope won a contract to establish an internal accelerator as part of AFWERX, a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory initiative to connect government, industry, and academic innovators.
The SSPIDR Project is under contracted development in partnership with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).