Space Alert

The Air Force wants to leverage commercial industry's anticipated development of space internet satellite constellations to experiment with and establish a seamless communication and data-sharing capability.

As the Air Force looks to speed up its acquisition process by expanding its use of certain authorities, the service's space community is working to identify some "exemplar" programs to pilot those concepts.

Raytheon delivered the next-generation GPS ground control segment's Block 0 launch and checkout system to the Air Force late last month, the service confirmed this week.

After rebaselining the second increment of the Joint Space Operations Mission System modernization program last year, the program is making progress toward a full deployment decision in May 2019.

Polaris Alpha, the private-equity owned company that completed its most recent acquisition late last month, is seeking to establish itself as a major player in what the company calls “emerging” warfighting domains, including space, electronic warfare and cyberspace.

The Defense Department is asking Congress to approve a $50 million transfer to a program that would develop a commercially based, micro-synthetic aperture radar satellite prototype aimed at using "deep learning analytics" to improve the speed and exploitation of raw satellite imagery, according to a document obtained by Inside Defense.

A prominent Washington defense budget expert says the Air Force is most likely to extend the service life of the Minuteman III fleet to bridge a gap in nuclear missile levels if the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent program is delayed.

Northrop Grumman said early Monday it will acquire Orbital ATK in a $9.2 billion deal meant to bolster Northrop's capabilities in space and missile defense.

The Air Force has strongly opposed a new proposal to establish a separate Space Corps, alleging it would be too expensive and disruptive -- but some analysts and former Defense Department officials are puzzled by the service’s response to an organizational change they say could help manage the space domain.