![]() a space-focused federally funded research and development center based in El Segundo, California - said the alignment between government and commercial requirements, the capital from billionaires like Musk and Bezos and technological advances that are driving down the cost to orbit likely means that launch demand continue into the foreseeable future.Īnd with that sustained demand, he said, comes increased strain on the Space Force’s launch infrastructure. Randy Kendall, vice president of launch and architecture operations at Aerospace Corp. The service expects to surpass 130 launches this year - a number officials say could triple in the near future. The complexes, which just a decade ago were flying only a handful of missions each year, provided payload processing and support for 73 missions in 2022. the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and the Western Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The service operates the two busiest spaceports in the U.S. Underpinning the swell of commercial and military activity in orbit and the demand for rockets to support it is a launch range infrastructure that is largely managed by the Space Force.įirefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket is seen lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base along the central California coast in September of 2021. The rise of proliferated satellite constellations creates a need for more rockets, and in the last few years, a number of new entrants have ventured into the launch scene - including Firefly Aerospace, Relativity Space and ABL Space Systems - and more established companies like SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman have revealed plans to upgrade or build new launch vehicles. Space Systems Command, the service’s primary acquisition arm, is considering how it might adopt this model for other mission areas. Space Force’s Space Development Agency expects its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture will include hundreds of spacecraft providing low-latency communication and missile tracking capabilities. ![]() Other companies with ambitions in LEO include Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, which expects its Project Kuiper constellation to feature more than 1,500 communication satellites by 2026, and OneWeb, a London-based firm that has already launched more than 600 spacecraft to its satellite internet constellation as of late March. ![]()
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