SPACECOM discussing expansion of joint space monitoring missions with allies

AFA 2025 — US Space Command (SPACECOM) is planning a second space domain awareness mission with France, after recently completing a similar mission with the United Kingdom, according to a senior Space Force official.

It also is in early discussions about similar missions with other allied partners in the Multinational Force Operation Olympic Defender, Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess, who is dual-hatted as head of Space Forces-Space command and SPACECOM’s Combined Joint Forces Space Component Command, said today.

“We’re not in the planning phase for [any new missions beyond that with France], but I can see that that there will be others,” he said.

Operation Olympic Defender largely serves as a combined space operations planning cell, involving six US allies: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Its focus is to “optimize space operations, improve mission assurance, enhance resilience of space-based systems, synchronize efforts to strengthen deterrence against hostile actors and reduce the spread of debris orbiting the Earth,” according to a SPACECOM fact sheet.

However, Schiess told reporters during the annual Air and Space Forces Association conference in National Harbor, Md., that SPACECOM Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting has been pushing to move “beyond just planning and working together” into actual “operations” — starting with keeping collective eyes on the heavens.

The first bilateral mission was held with France and involved a rendezvous and proximity operation (RPO) in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), he said.

A Space Force spokesperson said the joint operation happened during “the last quarter of 2024.”

SPACECOM announced on Sept. 18 that it had successfully completed a similar RPO mission with UK Space Command. That demonstration “repositioned a U.S. satellite to examine a U.K. satellite and assure our ally of its nominal operation in orbit,” the release said.

Schiess would not elaborate on the US satellites used in either operation.

That said, the Space Force operates the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) constellation for keeping eyes on adversary satellites in GEO, and also has orbited experimental RPO satellites in low Earth orbit under its Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) program series of Victus satellites.

The exact nature of the follow-up mission with France and its timing are still up in the air as the two sides work out planning, Schiess said.

France has been working on development of small satellites for GEO surveillance through the experimental Yoda program. In August, France’s Space Command signed an agreement worth 50 million Euro (about $58 million) with Infinite Orbits for a micro-satellite mission in GEO, called Paladin, for launch in 2027.