The Air Force’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office is looking to build more prototypes in its quest to decrease costs while still providing urgent, exquisite capabilities airmen require, according to the office’s director.
Col. Shahnaz Punjani said March 6 that different directorates are putting together wish lists of key technologies they would like to demonstrate in a future prototype. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Advanced Systems and Development Directorate (ASDD) chief, she said, is looking at how he’d like to solve the launch-on-demand issue, but he’s also looking at testing things on orbit.
The ASDD office was stood up in November 2014 when the Air Force combined two SMC directorates charged with charting the future for Air Force Space Command (AFSPC): the space development and test directorate and the development planning directorate. The ORS office is tasked with providing warfighters with urgent needs using a streamlined acquisition system.
Punjani, at the Satellite 2017 conference in Washington, also said the ORS office is moving toward smaller, less complex satellites with 3-to-5 years design life, cheaper rockets and more agile launch operations. She also said ORS wants to improve space situational awareness (SSA) and battle management control (BMC) so it knows what is happening to satellites on orbit before determining how to defend them.
Punjani wants to increase international partnerships and the commercialization of routine tasks so the Air Force can focus on true warfighting efforts. She also wants further disaggregation, or separating strategic space assets from those used in tactical warfighting.
The ORS office has a number of programs set for launch in 2017. Punjani said ORS-5 will launch in July. ORS-5, she said, is a small satellite that will fill an urgent need for SSA in the geosynchronous belt. The Air Force in July 2015 awarded Orbital ATK [OA] a $23.6 million contract to launch the ORS-5 SensorSat spacecraft on one of its Minotaur rockets. The Minotaur IV will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the first time the rocket will be flown from the Cape, according to an Orbital ATK statement.
This Minotaur IV rocket uses retired ICBM Peacekeeper boosters for the first three stages and Orbital ATK Orion 38 solid rocket motors for the upper stages. Punjani said the ORS office procured ORS-5’s launch, ground and space system for less than $100 million total. The ORS-5 payload is being developed by MIT Lincoln Lab.
ORS-6, a weather technology demonstration, will launch in November on a Falcon 9 rideshare from Spaceflight Industries. Punjani said ORS-6 will test out the payload the Air Force wants to use for weather system follow-on program microwave for ocean surface vector winds. NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) is developing the ORS-6 payload.
Punjani said ORS-8, a cloud characterization mission slated for a 2020 launch, was recently approved and she hopes it will start in 2017. The Air Force has not made a decision on either the payload provider or the launch vehicle, she said. Punjani said ORS-8 will help provide a capability the Air Force “sort of” lost when the 19th Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellite (DMSP-19) lots its payload. While DMSP-17 and DMSP-18 are still providing capability, she said the service needs to have something come on board very quickly as those systems degrade.
ORS has not been working with traditional large primes over the years as it tends to work with mid-tier companies. Though Punjani said ORS did work with Northrop Grumman [NOC] to develop a modular space vehicle that enabled a plug-and-play open system architecture (OA) for satellites. This, she said, enabled payloads to be quickly integrated within existing satellite architecture. Northrop Grumman developed a modular space vehicle (MSV) for the ORS office.
Punjani said if big primes are looking to work with ORS, they’d provide an integrated solution that integrates launch and ground systems with their existing systems. Punjani said they should also find ways to further develop open architectures so that ORS can use different payloads.
The Air Force did not respond to a request for comment by press time March 9.