Theresa Hitchens

Commercial space monitoring firms are concerned SpaceX's ability to use the best DoD data could threaten the market, sources tell Breaking Defense.

The European Union also is funding a series of grant making projects designed to bring innovative technologies into the EU SST program, and support startups to strengthen the industrial base.

SPACECOM also is focusing on developing the baseline capabilities, such as space domain awareness and satellite communications, to undertake cislunar operations, said Gen. Stephen Whiting.

The Space Force expects the US site, the third and final one in the multi-nation DARC network, to complete civil construction in 2029, and begin operations in 2030.

The largest MoD investment detailed in the new strategy is a planned £880 million between 2026/2027 and 2029/2030 for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and space control "activities."

The space industry lauded a new Trump administration 1,000-launches-a-year space policy, but experts told Breaking Defense that the current space infrastructure doesn’t have enough capacity and someone’s going to have to pay, potentially a lot, to change that.

"We have to have a better linkage between our acquisitions officers, or staff, and our operators," Col. Tim Trimailo, head of the Space Systems Command's Commercial Space Office, told Breaking Defense.

The Space Warfighting Environment 2040 is unique because it "was deliberately written to be warfighter-first, not technology-first," an official at SPACECOM's Joint Forces Development and Training team told Breaking Defense.

The stated goal is to clean out obsolete satellites, though the capabilities could also be used in weapons that move a target bird to an orbit where it no longer can perform its function, disable it in some manner or simply smash it.

The data from the hosted payloads on QZS-7 and its predecessor QZS-6 will feed into the US Space Surveillance Network operated by the 18th Space Defense Squadron.