The Victus Haze mission is extra difficult than Victus Nox, involving two prime contractors, two spacecraft, and two rocket launches from completely different spaceports, all timed to happen with quick timelines “to keep the demonstration as realistic as possible,” a Space Force spokesperson advised Ars.

“This demonstration will ultimately prepare the United States Space Force to provide future forces to combatant commands to conduct rapid operations in response to adversary on-orbit aggression,” Space Systems Command mentioned in an announcement.

Faith in Commercial Space

“This is a really significant operational demonstration that is really pushing the envelope on technology and demonstrates a lot of faith in the US industrial base,” Rogers mentioned.

“Fundamentally, this is about characterizing an unknown capability for the first time in low-Earth orbit,” Rogers mentioned in an interview with Ars. “There are a whole host of challenges that come with that, consistent coverage with communications, how do you track a maneuvering object in low-Earth orbit with limited space domain awareness capabilities, what’s the right level of autonomy and human interaction?”

True Anomaly’s first two Jackal satellites launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission final month, however the firm introduced a couple of weeks later that the 2 satellites could be unable to finish their deliberate rendezvous demonstration. This would have been a precursor to the kind of exercise True Anomaly and Rocket Lab will reveal on Victus Haze.

Rogers mentioned his firm is engaged on two extra demonstration missions that can fly earlier than Victus Haze.

The navy’s Defense Innovation Unit awarded $32 million to Rocket Lab for its a part of the Victus Haze mission. True Anomaly’s contract with SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the Space Force, is valued at $30 million. True Anomaly is contributing $30 million in non-public capital to assist pay for the mission, bringing the whole value of Victus Haze to roughly $92 million. Space Safari, a division of Space Systems Command, oversees all the mission.

“We recognize the significant opportunity to leverage the commercial space industry’s innovations to counter China as America’s pacing threat,” mentioned Colonel Bryon McClain, Space Systems Command’s program government officer for area area consciousness and fight energy. “The United States has the most innovative space industry in the world. Victus Haze will demonstrate, under operationally realistic conditions, our ability to respond to irresponsible behavior on orbit.”

“Once the build phase is completed the mission will enter several successive phases to include hot standby, activation, alert, and launch phases,” the Space Force mentioned. “While this is a coordinated demonstration, each vendor will be given unique launch and mission profiles.”

True Anomaly’s Jackal satellite tv for pc, almost as giant as a fridge, will launch on a “rapid rideshare” mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida or Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Space Systems command mentioned. This will almost definitely be a rideshare launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Launching on a rideshare flight comes with completely different challenges than launching on a devoted rocket, because the Victus Nox mission did final 12 months.

True Anomaly says it might get its satellite tv for pc out of storage and combine it with a rocket in 12 to 84 hours, relying on the flight cadence of the launch supplier. After the launch of True Anomaly’s Jackal, the Space Force will give Rocket Lab a 24-hour call-up to launch its satellite tv for pc, related in dimension to True Anomaly’s spacecraft, on an Electron rocket from New Zealand or from Virginia. Rocket Lab’s launch have to be exactly timed to permit its satellite tv for pc to rendezvous with True Anomaly’s spacecraft in orbit.