Audrey Decker, Defense One — During its annual State of Defense event series, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said Congress’ budget-spending cap will slow the service’s “counterspace effort,” the largely classified effort to develop capabilities to keep an enemy from using space assets.
In this opinion piece for SpaceNews, Uma Bruegman, executive director of the Space Safety Institute at The Aerospace Corporation, writes: “We need a holistic, integrated, enterprise-level approach to address space safety gaps. To do this, we must maximize data sharing, possibly by establishing standards and databases for storage and sharing.”
Sandra Erwin, SpaceNews — United Launch Alliance (ULA) launched the NROL-70 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on the final flight of the Delta IV Heavy rocket. The Delta family of launch vehicles first launched in 1960.
Greg Hadley, Air and Space Forces Magazine — At the 39th Space Symposium, Gen. Stephen N. Whiting made the case for “dynamic space operations” as part of his goal of readying SPACECOM for 2027 — the year Chinese president Xi Jinping ordered his military to be ready to seize Taiwan — and preparing for the future after that date.
Sandra Erwin, SpaceNews — SpaceWERX, the tech innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force, is teaming up with the Aerospace Corporation to establish a “Technology Readiness Level” bootcamp lab in El Segundo, California. The TRL bootcamp is designed to guide companies through a structured framework that assesses the maturity of their technologies, according to Debra Emmons, vice president and chief technology officer at the Aerospace Corporation.
Lauren Williams, Defense One — The U.S. Space Force published a 19-page commercial space strategy document, which aims to pivot to a new model for using commercial space tech, including hybrid space architectures that combine systems from the Defense Department, private industry, and allies.
Sandra Erwin, SpaceNews — The U.S. Space Force announced April 8 it awarded Rocket Lab a $14.4 million contract to launch a Space Test Program experiment that will fly in very low Earth orbit. The mission, named STP-S30, is projected to launch in 2026 on a Rocket Lab Electron small launcher from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Debra Werner, SpaceNews — At the 39th Space Symposium, Richard DalBello, U.S. Office of Space Commerce director, said that their office envisions “a global, coordinated system of SSA providers, with a series of regional hubs providing SSA information and services to spacecraft operators.”
Debra Werner, SpaceNews — At the 39th Space Symposium, Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, called on commercial industry to develop affordable, radiation-hardened electronics.
Devin Coldewey, TechCrunch — Space Workforce 2030, a joint effort by the Space Foundation and Aerospace Corporation, is organizing the first National Space Day on May 3. This includes curriculum for students of all ages and backgrounds to learn more about space science and technology.
