Space Force

United Launch Alliance is scheduled to conduct the third Space Test Program mission, or STP-3, for the Space Force’s Space Systems Command in the early hours of Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Here’s how to the ULA’s Atlas V rocket launch.

Fourth time’s the charm for Astra! It has successfully reached orbit with its Rocket 3.3 vehicle, serial number LV0007. This mission follows the “powerslide launch” in which an engine failure lead to a terminated flight.

The United States Space Force has slowly begun to grow its presence everywhere space is present in the Department of Defense. This includes the Air Force Academy, which has now added a formal detachment there from the new branch.

For the first time in the history of the Joint Chiefs, they have modified their identification badge to represent the addition of the Space Force.

Founded in 2019, the Space Force came from the Air Force Space Command. With the reorganization, many airmen became Space Force Guardians. Now, the Space Force has selected over 900 new personnel to transfer into the branch.

This week, the Space Force gained a new look, NASA human spaceflight leadership has been divided, and preparations continue for Artemis I.

The newest branch of the United States Armed Forces has slowly begun building its own brand. Following Monday’s Space Force unveiling of enlisted rank insignia, the service has shown off their dress and physical fitness uniform prototypes.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger Towberman announced the new rank insignias for enlisted Guardians Monday.

After a failure in the second stage during their “Running Out Of Toes” mission earlier this year. Rocket Lab is planning to return with a now improved system this week. The mission will carry a test satellite for the United States Space Force to evaluate new sensor technology. In tradition with Rocket Lab’s fun naming style, this launch will be named “It’s A Little Chile Up Here”. This is in honor of the green chile of New Mexico where the Space Force’s Space Test Program is based.

Date: Thursday, July 29th at 4:00 a.m. EDT (2-hour window)

The United States Space Force operates the GPS constellation that we use every day to know where we are. Tomorrow, SpaceX will launch a new GPS III satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, into orbit to expand and upgrade the constellation that was been active since 1978. The launch window opens at 12:09 p.m. and lasts 15 minutes.

Date: Thursday, June 17th, 12:09 p.m. EDT

Pegasus XL is an air-launched rocket capable of launching ~443kg to Low Earth Orbit. Northrop Grumman conducted a launch of this vehicle over the weekend on a mission for the Space Force. The satellite was named Odyssey and was designed to be a “Space Domain Awareness” Technology Demonstration.

On Tuesday United Launch Alliance launch their first Atlas V rocket of the year. This mission carried with it a missile detection satellite called SBIRS GEO 5 for the United States Space Force.

May 18th, 2:19 PM EDT: The SBIRS GEO 5 satellite has been deployed from the Centaur upper stage.

A few weeks ago, ULA conducted their first launch for 2021 with a launch of a Delta IV Heavy for the National Reconnaissance Office. Next week, ULA plans to launch the first Atlas V rocket of the year carrying a payload for the US Space Force.

Date: Monday, May 18th, 1:37 PM EDT

While the Falcon 9 continues to smash launch cadence records with already 9 flights this year, its bigger sibling the Falcon Heavy still hasn’t been seen since 2019. SpaceX plans to launch 1 maybe even 2 this year if schedules can hold, the first of which is getting closer to being ready for flight.

The United States Space Force made a rather significant announcement today, stating that its members will officially be called Guardians. The naming consensus was reached after a year-long process involving hundreds of submissions.

On November 15, at 7:27 p.m. EST, an international crew of astronauts launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission was called Crew-1, and onboard was Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi, all headed to the International Space Station.

Every gamer knows that the hunt for next-gen consoles has been an extremely difficult one this year. It’s been so difficult, in fact, that some people are even willing to put their job at risk to get their hands on one, as a member of the Space Force was recently demoted for doing.

Space Force has had the goal of building up a branch that is different than the rest of the military. A branch that is more agile and faster than the rest, something needed to be successful in the space domain. Space Force is continuing with that ideology with the new acquisitions command, bringing a fresh look to how contracts are awarded.