| |  | National security insights for space professionals. Delivered Tuesdays. | | In this week's edition: • Lawmakers press Space Force on budget priorities • What's next for the Space National Guard • Astrobotic pitches reusable suborbital rocket to military agencies
If this newsletter was forwarded to you, sign up for free here | | | | Today's highlights: |  | The Space Force's budget, its fresh plan to team up with commercial space players, and what's next for the Space National Guard were some of the storylines at last week's congressional hearings.
At both House and Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the Department of the Air Force's 2025 budget request, several lawmakers said they were underwhelmed by the pace of funding for technologies to protect U.S. space assets from anti-satellite weapons developed by rivals like China and Russia.
The Space Force's top military leader, Gen. Chance Saltzman, said the $29.4 billion request for fiscal 2025 prioritizes resilience in the space architecture and the training of guardians, but there isn't sufficient funds to rapidly field new offensive and defensive space warfare systems. "Until we have built the infrastructure to achieve space superiority, the Space Force is a work in progress," Saltzman said in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Saltzman said the Space Force is on a trajectory comparable to the merchant marine trying to become the U.S. Navy. "That requires different equipment, that requires different training. And so what we're working on currently is advancing the training of our guardians."
Of note, the Space Force's growth trajectory has slowed from the rapid ramp-up of its early years. Congress whacked $1 billion from the administration's $30 billion ask for fiscal year 2024, cuts that could presage more austerity in 2025 under the Fiscal Responsibility Act's strict spending caps. |
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| | Members of the House Armed Services Committee had several questions for Saltzman about the newly released Commercial Space Strategy. They wanted to know how the Space Force plans to change its procurement methods so commercial products and services are fully considered. "We're excited about the commercial space strategy," said Saltzman. "As we've known for a long time, one of our asymmetric advantages is the power of innovation and that engine of ingenuity that's in the commercial industry." "We have to know what the commercial offerings are in order to take advantage of them, and the commercial industry has to understand what our challenges are to best prioritize where they invest and how they can present capabilities to us," he added. The Space Force has to "understand what we should preserve organically as inherently governmental services," Saltzman noted.
The Space Force currently buys commercial services for space launch and for satellite communications. Saltzman said the plan is to "bring in some nontraditional kinds of data and services" to be acquired by Space Systems Command's new Commercial Space Office. | | Saltzman, testifying alongside Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, also fielded pointed questioning from lawmakers about the service's proposal to move units from the Air National Guard that currently perform space duties into the active-duty U.S. Space Force. The plan faces stern opposition from state governors.
Kendall said there are about 500 to 600 guardsmen — based in Hawaii, California, Colorado, Florida, New York, Ohio and Alaska — who would be impacted by this reorganization. "I consulted with General Saltzman and we've looked at the functions of those units to see if they fit into the Air Force or Space Force architecture more appropriately. Most of them do fit within the Space Force," Kendall said at the SASC hearing. "The Space Force is incredibly small and it was designed to be lean and mean, to be very efficient in how it operated and to have as minimal amount of bureaucracy associated with it," he added.
Congress has authorized the Space Force to implement a hybrid force structure, with both full-time and part-time personnel. Kendall said this allows flexibility for former members of the Air National Guard to join the service and continue to serve part-time. "There's no intention to move anyone," said Kendall. "There are some concerns out there that I think are overblown. People will basically have stability if they transition … and they would be able to continue to serve in the way that they currently would serve." Kendall also said: "I'm sorry this has become such a politicized issue. It should be a very straightforward issue."
| |  | IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, the official SpaceNews Show Daily for all three days of the 39th Space Symposium is available for download. The Show Daily features must-read reporting from the Space Symposium, the year's preeminent civil, military and commercial space industry event. | | In other news 🚀 |  | Astrobotic, a company that develops vehicles for space exploration missions, is making a move into the defense sector with its Xogdor reusable rocket, designed to test payloads at the edge of space.
The rocket, expected to debut in 2025, is funded by a NASA contract, "but we are also looking at applications to support the Department of Defense," Sean Bedford, Astrobotic's director of business development for propulsion systems, told SpaceNews.
The company plans to offer the liquid-fueled Xogdor to the U.S. Air Force, the Missile Defense Agency and other defense organizations for use as a testing and research platform, and for transportation. | | | | The Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or Space ISAC, announced the establishment of a Low Earth orbit satellite operators' group that will share information about natural and human-made threats to their spacecraft.
The LEO Owner Operators Affinity Group, consisting of Space ISAC members that operate spacecraft in LEO, brings together companies that are facing similar challenges, said Frank Backes, chief executive of Capella Space and the co-chair of the group. | | The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded BlueHalo a $24.4 million contract to support the lab's Satellite Assessment Center, an organization that models and analyzes the vulnerabilities of space systems.
The five-year contract was awarded by AFRL's Directed Energy Directorate. AFRL's Satellite Assessment Center, located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, evaluates the vulnerabilities of space vehicles to lasers and laser radiation. | | Thanks for reading ! Please send comments, suggestions and tips to serwin@spacenews.com | | | | |
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