The U.S. Space Force last week held its first ever war game that included more than a dozen commercial satellite participants to begin experimenting with the service’s framework to leverage commercial capacity when its own resources are stretched thin.

The war game followed the award on March 1 of the first contracts under the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR), with the initial four vendors providing capability for space domain awareness. Those awards are three-month pilot efforts for a “peacetime amount of capability” with provisions to increase capacity beyond the peacetime level, which lets the Space Force know what the surge-related costs will be, Col. Richard Kniseley, senior materiel leader at the Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Commercial Space Office, told Defense Daily on April 1.

The vendors for the space domain awareness CASR awards were not disclosed. There were five bidders.

The vendors also get “exclusive access to exercises and war games,” which is something industry wants for participating in CASR, Kniseley said in the interview. In addition to the Space Force having access to additional priority capacity, the reserve framework allows the service to ask the vendors to voluntarily deny access to certain customers, he said.

The recent war game allowed the Space Force to check to see if had the right “mechanisms in place,” the right decision authorities, and for industry how they could mitigate the impacts to their commercial services given the need to prioritize capacity for the government, Kniseley said.

“So, learning all about industry just builds to a better partnership between the government and industry,” he said.

Later this year, SSC expects to hold a second CASR war game with commercial satellite communications providers, and award CASR pilot contracts for commercial SATCOM as well if the budget permits, Kniseley said. The hope this year is to follow the second set of CASR awards with ones for tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking, and another for launch access, likely with companies that have small launch vehicles, he said.

Kniseley’s office has completed a mission area analysis of the commercial SATCOM needs for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and last week began studies for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, he said.

“And the goal of that is to understand how much commercial SATCOM capability each combatant command needs, and that’s in the different orbits, the different bands, and that will form the foundation of how much we put on contract,” he said. “And then we can extrapolate how much added capacity we’re going to need in order to do that.”

As for initial observations from the first war game, Kniseley described it as “awesome,” and said that it was good to have it focused on industry given commercial technologies are usually “overshadowed by military operated capabilities.”

Commercial SATCOM is seen as a “potential first mover” given the challenges from a near-peer adversary, which means it is important to exercise and understand the capability, Kniseley said.

A key lesson was learning what a “full CASR call up looks like” in terms of decision authorities, and coordination within the Defense Department and with other federal agencies, he said.

The war game included SSC, the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for space integration, policy personnel from the office of the secretary of defense, elements of the planned Space Futures Command, and the legal community. For the next event, the Space Force wants external agencies such as the Departments of Commerce and Transportation involved.

Kniseley’s office has relationships with the different stakeholders but they need to be part of a future war game “as we start pulling on the threats of the scenarios” and have a more comprehensive event, he said.

Work on creating the CASR framework began more than two years ago. “The framework is moving full steam ahead,” Kniseley said.

This will drive the need for additional resources.

“We do need to have that additional budget to ensure that we have the ability to put these companies on contract to provide that peacetime level amount of capability, which allows us to exercise, operate, and integrate those capabilities into a hybrid space architecture,” he said.

The Space Force continues to work with its partners and stakeholders to build out the CASR framework, Kniseley said. Financial protection for the commercial sector, readiness plans, ensuring the right incentives are in place to attract industry, and potentially add some of the companies to the Commercial Integration Cell (CIC) are part of ongoing efforts, he said.

The CIC allows the Space Force and its industry partners to share information about operations and technology in real-time to improve space domain awareness.

The United States Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) has awarded Northrop Grumman two in-space refueling contracts, the company said on Wednesday.

“These contracts build on Northrop Grumman’s proven on-orbit satellite servicing and refueling innovation, including first-of-its-kind mission extension services that protect critical space assets in geosynchronous orbit for both U.S. government and commercial partners,” the company said. “SSC awarded Northrop Grumman a contract for the Elixir refueling payload program, which will enable the Space Force to refine tactics and procedures for rendezvous and proximity operations, docking, refueling, and undocking of on-orbit vehicles – foundational capabilities for servicing, mobility and logistics.”

Astroscale U.S., a subsidiary of Japan’s Astroscale, and Lafayette, Colorado-based start-up Orbit Fab are also to demonstrate satellite refueling for Space Force.

Space Force is to demonstrate Northrop Grumman’s refueling payload on the service’s Tetra-6 mission in 2027.

“Under a separate contract, Northrop Grumman has been awarded a multi-unit award of four of the company’s proven ESPAStar spacecraft, one of which will host the refueling demonstration payload on its ride to space,” the company said on Wednesday.

In February, Redwire Corp. [RDW] said that it has received a contract from Arcfield‘s Orion Space Solutions to build a Mako satellite to support the Space Force’s Tetra-6 mission to demonstrate different refueling methods for geosynchronous orbit satellites; cooperative and prepared inspection; docking; proximity operations; autonomy techniques to enable future on-orbit servicing; and sustained space maneuver (Defense Daily, Feb. 11).

Redwire is also building two Mako platforms for Tetra-5, which was on track for this year, but is now scheduled for June next year.

Last August, Orbit Fab said that SSC had qualified the company’s Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI) as a refueling interface for in-space refueling of military satellites.

“Orbit Fab has priced the RAFTI refueling port at $30,000 to make it easily accessible for missions of all sizes,” the company said.

In January last year, Astroscale U.S. said that it had received a nearly $26 million award from Space Force to deliver the Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling (APS-R) satellite by next year. APS-R, which will use Orbit Fab refueling interfaces, is to provide on-demand hydrazine to increase satellite mobility.

Northrop Grumman said on Wednesday that Elixir builds upon its work for SSC on the Geosynchronous Auxiliary Support Tanker and “includes elements to successfully perform rendezvous and proximity operations, dock and undock with a demonstration client satellite, to transfer and receive fuel.”

“The refueling payload will be equipped with the company’s Active Refueling Module (ARM), which interfaces with Northrop Grumman’s Passive Refueling Module (PRM) for the transfer and receipt of fuel,” the company said. “Operational client satellites equipped with PRMs will benefit from this mature technology because they can be refueled. In 2023, the company’s PRM was approved by SSC’s Space Systems Integration Office as a refueling interface for consideration by SSC programs. Multiple PRM flight units are currently in production for the Space Force and will also be integrated onto Northrop Grumman’s next-generation satellite servicing vehicle, the Mission Robotic Vehicle.”

Adam Harris, Orbit Fab’s chief revenue officer, wrote in an email on Wednesday that the company will have a refueling payload on Northrop Grumman’s Rapid On-orbit Space Technology Evaluation Ring-5 (ROOSTER-5) demonstration tanking satellite for the same Tetra-6 mission in 2027 as Elixir.

“Additionally, Orbit Fab is launching a refueling payload with Astroscale APS-R,” Harris wrote. “What’s exciting for us is that our refueling tech is on three of the four upcoming U.S. DoD refueling missions. That’s a testament to how our RAFTI port and refueling architecture are setting the standard for keeping satellites fueled and flexible, whether it’s for the Space Force or beyond. Competition is healthy for any industry and Northrop’s news is a testament to the criticality and urgency of the need for this technology to be fully operationalized.”