With eyes on future NASA moon base, Space Force launches cislunar acquisition task force
Meanwhile, the Air Force Research Laboratory is gearing up to launch its experimental cislunar monitoring satellite, called Oracle Prime, next year.
Lanteris, formerly a Maxar company, to be acquired by Intuitive Machines
The move widens Intuitive Machines' past focus on the Moon to the space market closer to Earth.
Modernizing defense enterprise IT without disrupting the mission
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
Qunnect announces Air Force contract for quantum networking over conventional fiber
The Air Force Research Lab’s award to the NYC-based startup is also a vote of confidence in the idea of using quantum particles for secure communications — an idea of which the NSA has long been skeptical.
Vulcan’s first Space Force launch to carry long-delayed experimental PNT satellite
Vulcan's heaviest version, which will use six solid rocket motors, still awaits Space Force certification.
DIU expands ‘Hybrid Space Architecture’ vendor pool, plans 2026 pilot
HSA is aimed at creating a "hack-proof" internet in space comprising commercial and government SATCOM birds to underpin the Defense Department's Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control concept to link sensors and shooters in real time.
Ursa Major looks to fly Draper engine, takes aim at rocket engine markets
“This will be a next-generation capability being introduced by Ursa Major for hypersonic technology,” Ursa Major CEO Dan Jablonsky told Breaking Defense.
Breaking Defense announces Breaking Defense Europe, a new, distinct, European edition
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
Air Force Research lab awards PsiQuantum $10.8M for experimental quantum chips
The deal gives AFRL scientists access to manufacturing tools developed by PsiQuantum and GlobalFoundries, allowing them to build experimental designs for barium titanate chips that use particles of light instead of electricity.
AFRL moves toward flight testing satellite internet radios under Global Lightning
"The expectation is that we will bounce between those constellations in the same flight, so we'll move between them. Now, I don't think anybody should be guaranteeing that on flight one," said AFRL's head engineer for Global Lightning Brian Beal. "We're going to improve as we go and get to that, but that is the goal of the program."
Scout Space nabs DARPA deal to simulate autonomous satellite swarming
The BRIDGES project is Scout's first with DARPA, but the company's SDA-related software and hardware — including its "plug and play" optical sensor packages designed as hosted payloads — already have caught the eye of Space Force officials.
ROC Stars: Air Force seeks more firms for cargo delivery via rocket
AFRL's fiscal 2025 budget plans show that the lab hopes to complete testing of the capability to air-drop cargo pallets down from Starship during FY25, and to launch a demonstration flight to "transport 30 to 100 tons of cargo to an austere site" in late FY25 or early FY26.
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3D vision is redefining how drones navigate without GPS
As “dirty” RF and contested environments proliferate, autonomy increasingly depends on resilient positioning.
AFRL seeks ‘advanced’ ISR sensors, including for moving targets
Under the Science and Technology Applied RF Systems program, estimated to cost a total of nearly $95 million over six years, AFRL is looking to award up to three indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts.
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Future inevitability of quantum computers is a security problem today
‘Store Now, Decrypt Later’ attacks must be thwarted now with Zero Trust cybersecurity.
Rocket Cargo is go! Air Force’s experimental resupply program moves closer to the launch pad
The investment in transitioning Rocket Cargo "is focused on utilizing vehicles that traverse from or through space to transport DoD materiel anywhere around the world within tactically responsive timelines," the Space Force's FY25 budget request says.
New Space Force tech accelerator focused on space domain awareness software
The goal of the accelerator is to bring industry, government and academia together to integrate SDA computer systems to "fully leverage" data from myriad sources across the Defense Department, the Intelligence Community, other government agencies, allies and commercial firms — a seemingly unsolvable problem that has bedeviled the Pentagon for decades.