{"id":894,"date":"2025-03-19T08:39:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T08:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=894"},"modified":"2025-01-06T20:43:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T20:43:31","slug":"us-space-force-to-fly-two-rapid-response-demonstration-missions-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=894","title":{"rendered":"US Space Force to fly two rapid-response demonstration missions in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\"><strong>The US Space Force announced two new missions to demonstrate how highly maneuverable space vehicles can enable the service to quickly respond to real-time threats.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">The service awarded Impulse Space a $34.5 million contract for two maneuverable spacecraft. The company\u2019s Mira space vehicle, which flew for the first time last year, can host multiple payloads and transport them to different orbits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">The Defense Innovation Unit and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Lincoln Laboratory will provide payloads for the missions. A Space Systems Command spokesman told Defense News that the timing is still fluid, but both missions are slated for summer or fall of 2026 as part of a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2024\/05\/22\/space-force-to-hold-annual-tactically-responsive-space-demos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tactically responsive space demonstration series<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"html__StyledDiv-sc-wfpr1i-0 cZQILF block-margin-bottom\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kEsgwfFqL-M\" width=\"315\" height=\"560\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">The Space Force defines tactically responsive space as the ability to react quickly to the threats that come from operating in an increasingly\u00a0congested and adversarial space environment. That could mean launching satellites on short notice, maneuvering a pre-positioned, spare spacecraft to augment a degraded system or buying data from a commercial vendor during a crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">Since 2021, the service has conducted two tactically responsive space missions, and it\u2019s planning a third in 2025. A demonstration last year,\u00a0dubbed Victus Nox, showed that the service could work with\u00a0satellite and launch companies\u00a0to deliver a spacecraft in a matter of months and launch it with just 27 hours of notice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">The 2026 missions will focus less on satellite and launch vehicle delivery timelines and more on in-space operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">The first mission, dubbed Victus Surgo, will launch into low Earth orbit on SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket. Impulse\u2019s Helios high-energy kick stage, which will fly for the first time on this mission, will then transfer the Mira spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">DIU will co-sponsor Victus Surgo, and the mission will feature one of its payloads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">The second demonstration, Victus Salo, will fly to low Earth orbit carrying an MIT-built payload. SpaceX will launch the spacecraft as part of a rideshare mission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 kEzXdV body-paragraph body-paragraph\">\u201cBoth missions will incorporate a modular interface to reduce the time and effort it takes to integrate and test new payloads to space vehicles,\u201d Space Systems Command said in a statement. \u201cOnce on orbit, the two spacecraft will be able to quickly conduct space domain awareness missions using a precise, high thrust and high delta-V propulsion capability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Space Force announced two new missions to demonstrate how highly maneuverable space vehicles can enable the service to quickly respond to real-time threats. The service awarded Impulse Space [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-us-space-force"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/US-SPACE-FORCE-MISSIONS.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1517,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/1517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}