During a symposium organized by the Universities Space Research Association and George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, representatives of both the space and AI fields argued for greater use of AI technologies for both spacecraft and applications of space-based data.

At Space Symposium, leaders from L3Harris argued that the company has already demonstrated technologies that will be central to the Golden Dome architecture, including MOSSAIC—ground-based infrastructure for Space Force’s space domain awareness architecture—and a prototype hypersonic ballistic tracking satellite.

At Space Symposium, Space Systems Command Commander Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said that certain missions will remain inherently government, like defensive and offensive space control, while missions like satellite communications, commercial imagery, and GPS satellite operations could be handed off.

At Space Symposium, Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman spoke about the service’s collaboration with Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Colombia. This partnership exhibits the kind of work he would like to see globally. The team uses a surveillance, reconnaissance, and tracking program to share unclassified information.

In a fireside chat moderated by Aerospace’s Tanya Pemberton, Space Force Gen. Mike Guetlein and Navy Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth focused on opportunities and challenges to collaborate across the intelligence community. One example of a current thriving partnership: the Joint Overhead Persistent-Infrared Center, which is comprised of the NGA, USSF and U.S. Space Command.

Despite emerging global norms and growing concern about orbital sustainability, China is leaving the upper stages of the rockets used for the launches in orbits that will persist in low Earth orbit (LEO) for over a century. Over the next several years, China plans to have 1,000 launches to deploy over 20,000 satellites in its megaconstellations.

The National Security Space Launch contracts include 54 critical missions for the military and intelligence community between 2027 and 2032. Under the contracts: SpaceX wins 28 missions for up to $5.9 billion, ULA wins 19 missions for up to $5.4 billion, and Blue Origin wins 7 missions for up to $2.4 billion.

These will be the fifth and sixth private astronaut missions, or PAMs, to the ISS, which are part of a broader low Earth orbit commercialization effort by NASA. The ultimate goal is to replace the ISS with one or more commercial stations.

The Space Force’s Doctrine Document 1 (SFDD-1) officially puts into action the two-year campaign by Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman to refocus the service’s traditional mission of providing critical support functions to the rest of the US military toward waging war “in, from and to space.”

Gen. Chance Saltzman told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that Beijing’s space ambitions constitute a “powerful destabilizing force” in the increasingly contested domain. Of particular concern, he said, is China’s growing arsenal of counterspace weapons.