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National security insights for space professionals. Delivered Tuesdays.

In this week's edition:

• Space Force to commercial industry: 'We need all hands on deck'

• Military to further study value of in-space satellite refueling

• Starfish Space wins $37.5 million defense contract

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Today's highlights:

SPACE FORCE BULLISH ON COMMERCIAL INNOVATION — At the latest Washington Space Business Roundtable meeting, Col. Rich Kniseley, who oversees the Space Force's commercial space acquisition efforts, told industry executives that the future is bright for companies developing technologies with national security applications.

"We must harness technological innovation and emerging capabilities if we're going to out compete our competitors. Otherwise we all lose," Kniseley told the group on Friday. "Keep maturing your solutions. Any potential fight with a pacing challenge will require all hands on deck."

A COMMERCIAL SPACE RESERVE program is moving forward, Kniseley said.

Known as the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR), the program is designed to integrate private sector tech directly into military units. Think satellites embedded in exercises and deployments, becoming an extension of the U.S. space arsenal.

The CASR program is a first-of-its-kind handshake between the government and space industry to secure surge capacity in a conflict.
Kniseley said the Space Systems Command is aiming to award the first CASR contracts later this year.

DEEP DIVE ON ORBITAL REFUELING — The Space Force also is gearing up for a comprehensive study on the potential benefits and drawbacks of in-orbit satellite refueling.

This move comes as private companies like Orbit Fab are racing to establish gas stations in space.
Refueling satellites in orbit could extend their lifespans and provide crucial flexibility for maintaining constellations. But there are questions about the utility of refueling for cheaper satellites, and the potential for dependence on a limited number of refueling providers.
The Space Force's study will aim to identify the strategic implications of orbital refueling and guide future investments in the technology.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, with his then-deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, far left, at Vostochny Cosmodrome following the space center's scrubbed inaugural launch

RUSSIA'S NUKES IN SPACE — A new report from the National Security Space Association pushes back on the White House's assertion that Russia's reported development of a space-based nuclear weapon does not pose an immediate threat to humans on Earth.

NSSA says the detonation of a nuclear weapon in space has the capability to produce widespread and long lasting disruption and damage to critical infrastructures and human lives would be at risk.

The discourse about this potential threat, says NSSA, "highlights the general lack of knowledge about U.S. interests in space, the stakes of a conflict that begins in or extends to space, and the array of foreign threats to space assets and operations, as well as the need to increase awareness and educate Congress and the public."
"Diplomacy should be used to rally allies, partners, and other members of the international community in support of U.S.-led efforts to generate private and public pressure to convince Putin to reconsider the nuclear ASAT program," says the report.

NEW WARNING ABOUT RUSSIAN ASAT — The U.S. government claims that a recently launched Russian satellite is a counterspace weapon placed in nearly the same orbit as an American reconnaissance satellite.

Amb. Robert Wood, U.S. alternate representative for special political affairs in the United Nations, made the allegation during a debate on Monday by the U.N. Security Council on a Russian resolution proposing a ban on the placement of weapons of any kind in space.

In other news 🚀

Inversion Space, a three-year-old startup, is setting its sights on the military logistics market with its concept of "warehouses in space." The company envisions deploying reusable reentry capsules to store cargo in orbit, and delivering it to any point on Earth within an hour.

A pathfinder mission dubbed "Ray" is scheduled for launch as early as October on the SpaceX Transporter-12 rideshare mission. Funded by Inversion's $10 million seed round, Ray will test technologies that will support the development of a larger capsule, the company said.

The startup Starfish Space has secured a $37.5 million contract with the U.S. Space Force to develop, launch, and operate the company's Otter satellite servicing vehicle in geostationary orbit.

The contract is a so-called STRATFI (Strategic Funding Increase) agreement, awarded by the Space Systems Command's Assured Access to Space program office. It combines $37.5 million in government funds with an additional $30 million in venture capital investment.

The weather intelligence firm Tomorrow.io was awarded a $10.2 million contract from the Department of Defense to produce and deploy two satellites equipped with microwave sounders for military weather forecasting.

Under the contract, Tomorrow.io to manufacture and deliver two microwave sounders by May 2025. These instruments will measure atmospheric temperature and moisture, feeding data into weather prediction models used by the Air Force's Weather Systems Branch.

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