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.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
An initial $2.1 million obligation from AFRL fiscal year 2026 research and development funds will accelerate payload design under the BlackSky contract.
The BlackSky AFRL award is intended to enable very high-resolution imaging and collection performance combined with low-latency space-based communications.
BlackSky Technology received a $99 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory in early March 2025.
The AFRL award funds development of a low-cost, precision, large-aperture optical imaging system testbed with a segmented primary mirror, precision laser metrology and mirror positioning, and large-format focal plane arrays.
The BlackSky AFRL contract covers very large-aperture optical imagery capabilities.
BlackSky’s new AFRL contract is separate from the capabilities and applications of its current Gen-2 and Gen-3 electro-optical Earth imaging satellites and its planned AROS broad area search spacecraft.
The DOD Chief Information Office, the Air Force Research Lab, and PEO C3T are members of the WAVE Consortium.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is working with Redwire on in-space manufacturing.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Oracle program is being used as a foundational blueprint for future Blue Water space operations.
Orbit Fab has contracts with the U.S. Space Force, AFRL, DIU, the U.K. Space Agency, the European Space Agency, and Astroscale.
The Air Force Research Laboratory has a continuing contract relationship with Redwire.
The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Hughes Network Services a contract focused on resilient, hybrid satellite networks.
The contract award to Hughes Network Services is through the AFRL Rapid Architecture Prototyping and Integration Development (RAPID) program.
The BlackSky contract is a sole-source Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III award for high-fidelity research and development for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Center for Rapid Innovation.
KBR secured a separate $77 million task order for Air Force Research Laboratory and Space Systems Command modernization.
KBR secured a separate $77 million task order to support Air Force Research Laboratory and Space Systems Command modernization.
DARPA, the U.S. Space Force, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, Portal, Orbit Fab, CisLunar Industries, DPhi, and Solstar Space are manifested to fly payloads on Vigoride 7.
Aalyria holds a contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory under the Space Data Network Experimentation (SDNX) program announced on January 22, 2026.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory will evaluate Spacetime as a candidate for inclusion in its Space Data Network Experimentation program.
Momentus has been selected to perform the rendezvous demonstration mission for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s SPACEWERX organization.