US Space Force

A team of scientists led by University of Virginia professor Patrick Hopkins is developing a plasma "freeze ray" that will be less interesting to super villains than to engineers looking for ways to cool electronics in the vacuum of space.

NASA and DARPA have agreed to develop and test a nuclear rocket engine in space as soon as 2027. Using a nuclear reactor as its power source, it would outperform chemical rockets and greatly reduce the time for the first crewed Mars mission.

As part of a fast-track program to protect military satellite communications (SATCOM), Boeing recently demonstrated its new system at White Sands, New Mexico, that can autonomously detect and counter jamming efforts at the source in real-time.

With a reported sonic boom, the US Space Force's open-secret X-37B spaceplane returned to Earth on Saturday. The robotic craft touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:22 am EST after a record-breaking 908 days in orbit.

The US Space Force has awarded Northrop Grumman and Ball Aerospace a US$2.37-billion contract to design and build two sensor payloads for a pair of polar-orbiting satellites intended to warn of ballistic and hypersonic missile launches.

The US Space Force has launched a tactical satellite developed in only four months with only 21 days notice, demonstrating the ability to adapt and respond to changes in space or on the ground by quickly adding or replacing assets in orbit.

The United States Air Force and Space Force are looking at rockets as a way to send supplies to inaccessible war zones and disaster areas. Led by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Rocket Cargo Vanguard will look at ways that commercial rockets can be adapted for logistical missions.

Boeing and the US Space Force have completed the first major engineering design review of a new generation of military communication satellites.

The US Air Force's not-so-secret spaceplane has successfully launched on its sixth mission, OTV-6 (USSF 7). On May 17, 2020, at 13:14 GMT, the unmanned, autonomous spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral atop a specially modified Atlas V 501 rocket.

The Global Position System (GPS) has turned 25 years old. Operated by the US Space Force, the constellation of navigational satellites went fully operational on April 27, 1995, though US Space Command made the formal announcement in July of that year.

The United States Space Force (USSF) reports that Russia has launched a Direct Ascent Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile. US Space Command detected and tracked the weapon capable of destroying a satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO) on April 15.

The US Space Force has delivered its first national security payload into orbit, with a satellite successfully lifting off atop a United Launch Alliance rocket today to complete a network of protected communications satellites for US armed forces.