Many of the spacecraft are part of the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, designed to provide 24/7 global communications and missile tracking from low Earth orbit.

The chief of space operations said the Space Force is examining how to best invest in six categories of counter-space weapons, because China is doing the same.

Key priorities include making data “accessible, understandable, secure and trustworthy”; advancing a data and AI-driven organizational culture; and strengthening academic, industrial, and international partnerships.

Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance docked with the ISS and delivered NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein spoke about a series of Chinese satellite maneuvers in 2024 in low Earth orbit, involving three Shiyan-24C experimental satellites and two Chinese experimental space objects.

This is SpaceX’s 13th dedicated rideshare mission to Sun-synchronous orbits (SSO). Aerospace Corporation’s AeroCube-18 will test hyperspectral imaging, nanotech payloads, and advanced solar cells over a five-year mission.

The Space Force has been working closely with the Air Force and Navy to learn from their experience developing a realistic training and testing environment for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — with an eye on one day creating a similar capability for the space domain.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the acting acquisition executive for the Space Force, directed program offices to assess how commercially developed satellites and sensors could either replace or augment the military’s existing fleet of Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites.

At the Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium, Gen. Chance Saltzman said he wants more options to present to national leaders if an adversary threatens the U.S. These options include space-based and ground-based directed-energy weapons, radio frequency jamming capabilities, and kinetic weapons.

In light of an expected increase in the number of of military satellites, Space Rapid Capabilities Office is working to scale its Rapid Resilient Command and Control (R2C2) program. R2C2 is a cloud-based infrastructure program that provides tactical ground segment software for controlling dynamic satellites.