The U.S. Space Force found that reducing requirements on a geosynchronous orbit awareness system would reduce construction time by one-third and cost by more than one-half, a service official said on Wednesday.
The service began looking at inserting commercial features in the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) last year, and a commercial line is progressing, Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the Department of the Air Force’s acting space acquisition chief, told a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel.
Space Force operators would be “accomplishing the same GSSAP mission” and “using the same GSSAP system with the same ground systems and data they do now, but these would be using faster, cheaper commercial build times and less expensive parts in order to bring that together faster,” Purdy testified in response to a question from Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), the panel’s chairman.
Five of six Northrop Grumman [NOC]-built GSSAP satellites are still in operation. Four launched between 2014 and 2016, and two in January, 2022.
After Space Force’s Space Systems Command received responses to a Request for Information last fall about the unclassified commercial geosynchronous space situational awareness need, Purdy signed an Acquisition Decision Memorandum to reflect the level of interest–what Purdy said has “been an ability that the international market’s been clamoring to provide” (Defense Daily, March 11).
GSSAP satellites maneuver to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations to monitor and inspect other satellites.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), the ranking member of HASC’s strategic forces panel, said that he is concerned by cultural resistance to the use of commercial space within DoD/the intelligence community and by a possible “slash” by the National Reconnaissance Office, at the “direction of OMB” [Office of Management and Budget], to NRO’s commercial funding lines in the upcoming full fiscal 2026 budget.
“More broadly, DoD’s flat top line for FY 26 undoubtedly means the Space Force will be taking a cut,” Moulton said. “This mistake is especially stark when considering the billions [of dollars] thrown after Golden Dome with no plan or forethought.”