Astronomy Prints 🌌: Space Force deepens commercial ties with 2025 funding

03/25/2025

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Congress adds funding for commercial space services in 2025 bill

Congress added $40 million for commercial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance services in the fiscal 2025 spending bill passed earlier this month — a move welcomed by Col. Richard Kniseley, head of the Space Force's Commercial Space Office (COMSO).

"It's great to see support on both sides for commercial space," Kniseley said, adding that the Pentagon is still working with defense committees on how to allocate the funding.

Congress also approved $134 million the Space Force requested to integrate commercial satellite communications into military networks, accelerating the shift toward hybrid space architectures that blend government and private-sector capabilities.
Kniseley's office, formed two years ago, works to bridge the gap between the commercial sector and military needs, vetting companies and helping them navigate funding sources like SpaceWERX and the Defense Innovation Unit.
Front Door is a COMSO-run portal where companies pitch their products for military use. The program has already drawn over 800 vendors, Kniseley said, helping them connect with the right Pentagon decision-makers and secure investment.

With senior Space Force officials calling for a move away from traditional satellite development programs, Kniseley sees this as a pivotal moment. "It seems that the new administration is very much in the same mindset as we are in COMSO," he said. "The time is right to really take that next step."

Space Force will not disclose names of commercial reserve partners

As commercial satellites supporting the U.S. military increasingly become adversary targets, the U.S. Space Force is keeping quiet about which companies are signing on to bolster national security.

Kniseley confirmed that the service will not publicly identify companies participating in the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR)—a new initiative aimed at ensuring commercial satellite services remain available during crises. The move, he said, is designed to protect companies from becoming targets themselves.

"We wanted to understand from them what would make a good partnership," Kniseley told SpaceNews. "And a lot of the feedback that we got from industry was this may put a target on their back."
CASR, authorized by Congress after two years in development, is designed to create a commercial satellite reserve the U.S. military can activate in emergencies. Through pre-negotiated contracts, participating companies would guarantee priority access to critical capabilities — such as satellite communications or space domain awareness — without the Pentagon scrambling to secure services in a crisis.
The first four CASR participants, signed on March 1, specialize in tracking and identifying space objects, a key capability for monitoring adversary activities. Their agreements cover an initial three-month pilot, including participation in the first CASR war game on March 25.
"The pilot program is essential to execute and exercise our practices and procedures," Kniseley said, adding that contracts include "surge" options to rapidly scale operations if needed.

Despite its promise, CASR is still ironing out major policy issues — such as denial-of-service clauses that could force companies to suspend services for other customers if the military calls on their assets. That's raising concerns in industry circles, particularly over compensation for potential wartime losses.

U.S. needs steady hypersonic investment to compete, expert warns

The U.S. must ramp up funding and support for hypersonic weapons development to keep pace with China and Russia, former Pentagon official and hypersonics expert Mark Lewis said.

During a SpaceNews webinar March 24, Lewis said he expects the Trump administration to increase investments in this technology "I'm very bullish on hypersonics … I think we're going to see very steady, consistent funding."

Hypersonic weapons — missiles and vehicles capable of exceeding Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound — can evade traditional missile defenses, making them a crucial component of future military operations.

With China and Russia advancing their own hypersonic capabilities, Pentagon planners are under mounting pressure to accelerate U.S. efforts, Lewis said. The administration is also looking to deploy a layered defense architecture known as Golden Dome, integrating advanced sensors and interceptor missiles.

Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg — a key backer of hypersonics with ties to private industry — has signaled strong support for leveraging commercial investments to fast-track development, Lewis noted.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is another prominent advocate, with Indiana playing a central role in hypersonic research through Purdue University and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division. Lewis is the CEO of the Purdue Applied Research Institute.
Acknowledging the challenge of intercepting hypersonic threats, Lewis emphasized the need for a robust defense network combining space-based sensors and maneuverable interceptors. "A defender trying to stop an aggressor has to be about three times more maneuverable than the thing it's trying to stop," he noted.
Directed energy weapons, such as high-power lasers, could also play a role, potentially blinding an incoming missile's sensors to prevent it from reaching its target.
Golden Dome, Lewis cautioned, will need to be a multi-layered system given the likelihood of large-scale salvos rather than isolated attacks. "You really have to continue to explore all these various options before you reach a final system architecture."

In other news 🚀

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed SpaceX CEO and presidential advisor Elon Musk to the Pentagon last week.

During a closed-door discussion, the Pentagon said, Hegseth and Musk talked about tech innovation and the defense industrial base.

Musk's visit marks his first return to the Pentagon since 2016, when he met with then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. While Musk has played an increasingly prominent role in national security discussions — particularly through his space ventures — Pentagon officials downplayed speculation that last week's meeting was linked to his work with the Department of Government Efficiency.

The Trump administration has reinstated U.S. satellite imagery support for Ukraine, reversing a suspension imposed less than two weeks ago amid growing diplomatic tensions between Washington and Kyiv over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia.

A spokesperson for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) confirmed that Ukraine has regained access to the commercial satellite imagery platform that has been a crucial component of its intelligence-gathering capabilities since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.