ROC Stars: Air Force seeks more firms for cargo delivery via rocket

ROC Stars: Air Force seeks more firms for cargo delivery via rocket
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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NRO should concentrate on bigger, badder ‘tripwire’ ISR birds, new report urges

NRO should concentrate on bigger, badder ‘tripwire’ ISR birds, new report urges
NRO should concentrate on bigger, badder ‘tripwire’ ISR birds, new report urges

Meanwhile, the report says, the Space Force should be in charge of pursuing large networks of small satellites under the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) — differentiating its “tactical ISR” job from the “strategic” mission of NRO.

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Rocket Cargo is go! Air Force’s experimental resupply program moves closer to the launch pad

Rocket Cargo is go! Air Force’s experimental resupply program moves closer to the launch pad
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.

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Space Force envisions ‘freight trains’ to space, ‘Walmarts on orbit’

Space Force envisions ‘freight trains’ to space, ‘Walmarts on orbit’
Space Force envisions ‘freight trains’ to space, ‘Walmarts on orbit’

Stephen “Bucky” Butow, director of space at the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit summed up the end goal for future operations as creating a “blue collar space.”

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Power beamed from space, rocket cargo: UK military looking at ‘game-changing’ space tech

Power beamed from space, rocket cargo: UK military looking at ‘game-changing’ space tech
Power beamed from space, rocket cargo: UK military looking at ‘game-changing’ space tech

Listing a series of theoretical space capabilities, the Ministry of Defence’s Director for Space, Air Vice-Marshal Harv Smyth, said, “Who would not be excited by this?”

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US Must Build Space ‘Superhighway’ Before China Stakes Claims: Senior Space Force Officer

US Must Build Space ‘Superhighway’ Before China Stakes Claims: Senior Space Force Officer
US Must Build Space ‘Superhighway’ Before China Stakes Claims: Senior Space Force Officer

Brig. Gen. John Olson, who advises CSO Gen. Jay Raymond on space logistics issues, believes the US must rapidly act to take the “first mover advantage” for itself to block Chinese ambitions, which could include territorial claims in space.

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Costs Plunge So ‘Rocket Cargo’ To Battlefield Takes Off

Costs Plunge So ‘Rocket Cargo’ To Battlefield Takes Off
Costs Plunge So ‘Rocket Cargo’ To Battlefield Takes Off

If industry can “turn this into a human transport mechanism — which some of the companies are talking about doing — sure the DoD would be interested in exploring options for that, just as we do with the airlines, and the shipping industries today,”AFRL’s Program Manager Greg Spanjers said.

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