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This SpaceX Falcon 9 launch Orbital Services Program took place recently as part of the U.S. Space Force's Orbital Services Program.
COLORADO SPRINGS—The U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Space Office (ComSO) is planning a launch-based version of its Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) effort, says the office’s leader.
ComSO recently awarded the first-ever CASR pilot awards worth a cumulative $1.1 million to four space-domain awareness vendors, and had discussed plans to set up similar contracts related to satellite communication and tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking.
The fourth topic to tackle will be small launch, the ComSO senior materiel leader, Col. Richard Kniseley, told reporters at the Space Foundation’s annual Space Symposium here on April 10. That pilot is being coordinated with the program executive office (PEO) for assured access to space, as well as the Space Safari office under the PEO for space-domain awareness and combat power, he said.
The goal is to formulate a framework for how the Space Force could apply the CASR principles to the launch mission area, and would not be associated with the service’s National Security Space Launch program, Kniseley said. The CASR initiative is envisioned as a voluntary partnership, under which the Space Force can tap into commercial space capabilities in mission areas on demand during a crisis, with pre-negotiated prices for boosting those capabilities.
The launch pilot would involve a tabletop exercise to inform that framework, according to Kniseley. The ComSO is looking at companies involved in the service’s Orbital Services Program (OSP), which is run by the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP), he said. The current OSP-4 contract includes 12 companies: Aevum Inc., Astra Space, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Long Wall–formerly ABL Space Systems, Northrop Grumman, Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Stoke Space, United Launch Alliance and X-Bow.
While the current OSP-4 contract does not include performance of CASR activities, future RSLP acquisition efforts or contracts could, a Space Systems Command spokesperson said in an April 11 email.
On the heels of the first awards for the CASR space-domain awareness pilot contracts, Kniseley said he expects the pilots for the next three mission areas—satellite communications, tacSRT and launch—to also begin within fiscal 2025.
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