While US spending on national security space continues to dwarf that of the rest of world, non-US military space spending has jumped a whopping 76.5 percent over the last five years.
With programs like MTC, Millennium Space Systems is redefining what it means to be an operational prime – rapidly delivering operational small sat constellations on rapid timelines.
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
“Mission engineering” can integrate space and ground assets to push data to the edge.
Digital engineering and modern tools and processes offer near-term opportunities to improve satellite mission planning, data processing, command and control, and cybersecurity.
"The Army needs information when and where they want it," said Rob Zitz, a former Army intel official. "The IC should not get a vote on what Army needs or how Army executes combat missions."
This is the first time in nearly 70 years where the Defense Department can craft a wholly new service with new pathways to buy and field equipment. At its core this means building a culture of risk acceptance and tolerance -- not avoidance.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
While visionary corporate leaders may be willing to take high risks on space, a space economy will rely on markets to price risk and insure space activity. Normalizing business in space will require the United States to provide the public good of security in Earth orbit, just as the US Navy instills confidence in maritime commerce on the high seas.
"What happens to the funds that were authorized and appropriated by Congress for the NSpC?," a former space official wonders.
"Upfront investments are necessary to break the vicious cycle in which current DOD high-value assets are stuck" to increase space resiliency, the Aerospace Corp. study argues.
"Physics are physics," says Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space. "There are still some things for which a geostationary approach makes more sense. There are other areas that a Low Earth Orbit makes more sense, and everything in between."
Do more with less: streamline workflows, reduce duplication, invest upfront to save long-term.
Successful OmegaA test keeps the program on the path towards a 2021 first launch and a crack at the Air Force's hotly contested national security launch program.
The Trump Administration's Space Force proposal is "a canary in a very toxic space environment that is warning us about the challenges -- military competition, a sense of vulnerability, increasing capabilities for counterspace operations -- that we are just not dealing with very well," says Jessica West of Canada's Project Ploughshares
“Much of the excitement surrounding the ‘new space age’ is centered on recent innovations and growth seen in the commercial satellite industry,” said Tom Stoup, president of the Satellite Industry Association.
From 150 down to two -- that's how intense and ruthless the competition is going to be to win the Pentagon's nod for the small launch vehicle market.