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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AFRL will launch an experimental cubesat next spring equipped with a Link 16 encrypted radio frequency data link widely used by U.S. military and NATO aircraft and ground vehicles.
Roccor is working with BluFlux to complete environmental testing of a helical L-band antenna for XVI, an Air Force Research Laboratory program to demonstrate communications relay with a Link 16 terminal on a small satellite.
Roccor developed the antenna boom under a 2017 Air Force Research Laboratory Small Business Innovation Research contract.
The Defense Innovation Unit, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the U.S. Space Force led the four-day State of the Space Industrial Base 2020 program.
FalconSat-8 is a small satellite developed by the U.S. Air Force Academy and funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The Electron rocket tested at LC-2 will be used for the launch of Monolith, an Air Force Research Laboratory smallsat intended to demonstrate the ability to deploy a large-aperture payload for space weather monitoring.
Numerica provides space data and analytics services to the U.S. military under multiple contracts from the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Space and Missile Systems Center, and the Defense Innovation Unit.
The Air Force Research Laboratory plans to launch NTS-3 in 2022.
On 2020-01-09 the Air Force Research Laboratory said it had signed a CRADA last July with ABL Space Systems covering development and testing of rocket propulsion systems.
The Air Force Research Laboratory and Blue Origin signed a 15-year cooperative research and development agreement on 2019-12-11 covering testing of Blue Origin’s BE-7 engine.
Blue Origin will perform tests of the BE-7 engine at a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory test site.
The Air Force awarded a $5,000,000 contract to Applied Technology Associates of Paso Robles, California to assemble the Compact Environmental Anomaly Sensor 3 developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Prox-1 was built by the Georgia Institute of Technology with funding from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s University Nanosatellite Program.
The Air Force Research Laboratory signed an agreement with ABL Space Systems to jointly develop and test rocket propulsion components for future use in launch vehicles.
A three-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between AFRL and ABL Space Systems was signed on 2019-07-10.
AFRL did not disclose the 2019-07-10 CRADA with ABL Space Systems until 2020-01-09 at ABL Space Systems’ request.
ABL Space Systems established a presence at Edwards Air Force Base test site 1-56 of the AFRL rocket propulsion division.
Over the next three years, AFRL will evaluate test data provided by ABL Space Systems as part of an effort to explore new ways to launch payloads quickly and on short notice.
Space Vector will launch a suborbital mission named Precise from Wallops Island in fall 2020 to test readiness of space flight components for future orbital flights under an AFRL mission.
OTV-5 hosted the Air Force Research Laboratory’s second Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader experiment (ASETS-II).