Space Force picks two companies to build new ‘space-to-space’ satellites by 2028

KYIV, Ukraine — The Space Force and the Pentagon have commissioned two companies to build new reconnaissance satellites capable of delivering high-resolution “space-to-space imagery” of objects more than 22,000 miles above Earth.

Space Systems Command awarded the prototype contracts to Northrop Grumman and True Anomaly under the Geosynchronous High-Resolution Optical Space-Based Tactical Reconnaissance program, or GHOST-R, on Sept. 18.

The deal pairs a veteran American defense prime with a four-year-old space tech company – both of which are already under contract with the Space Force to develop space-based interceptors for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative.

“To be able to negate threats in space, we must be able to find, fix, track, and target those threats,” Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, said Sept. 16 at the AMOS Conference in Maui, Hawaii, just days before the announcement.

“Targeting in the space domain is maturing, but it still has a long way to go.”

GHOST-R is meant to address some of these problems by using “commercially developed space vehicles, buses, and electro-optical payloads to deliver high-resolution, space-to-space imagery for characterizing resident space objects in [geostationary Earth orbit] GEO,” according to the command announcement .

The new contracts are the latest major development in the RG-XX program, the Space Force’s next-generation orbital tracking initiative aiming to field a fleet of agile, low-cost reconnaissance satellites in geosynchronous orbit to help build out U.S. defense capacity in space by the end of the decade.

“Collaborating with DIU on GHOST-R is a true force multiplier. We are leveraging rapid prototyping to push the envelope of what commercial tech can deliver to the RG-XX program,” Col. Bryon McClain, acting Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) for Space Combat Power, said in the release.

Northrop will deliver a prototype the size of a “small suitcase” built on its ESPASat-L spacecraft, using a commercial optical sensor, and produced on “an accelerated 24-month timeline.”

“Space is becoming more congested and contested every day, and our joint forces depend on clear, timely insight into what’s happening on orbit,” Ryan Tintner, Northrop’s vice president, said in a company announcement about the deal.

True Anomaly will deliver its Jackal autonomous orbital vehicle and Mosaic command-and-control system, a dynamic operations sensor suite, through the initiative, according to the company’s release .

“As agile, maneuverable adversary platforms become more capable, the reconnaissance architecture can no longer rely on a handful of exquisite assets,” company CEO and co-founder Even Rogers said in the announcement.

Neither the Pentagon nor the companies have so far disclosed the value of the contracts or the source of their funding – although the money did not come from Andromeda, the Space Force’s up to $6.2 billion contract pool for RG-XX, an SSC spokesperson told Breaking Defense .

The new GHOST-R prototypes are set to launch directly to geosynchronous orbit by 2028 and fly government-owned and operated missions by 2029, officials said.

Katie Livingstone is the Ukraine correspondent for Defense News and Military Times. Based in Kyiv, she has covered Russia's full-scale invasion since its first days. She is a former Fulbright fellow whose award-winning work has appeared in outlets across Europe and the U.S.

乌克兰基辅——美国太空部队和五角大楼委托两家公司建造新型侦察卫星，这些卫星能够提供地球上方 22,000 英里以上物体的高分辨率“太空到太空图像”。

9 月 18 日，太空系统司令部根据地球同步高分辨率光学天基战术侦察计划（GHOST-R）将原型合同授予了诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司和 True Anomaly 公司。

该交易将一家经验丰富的美国国防巨头与一家成立四年的太空技术公司结合在一起——这两家公司都已与太空部队签订合同，为五角大楼的“金穹顶”导弹防御计划开发天基拦截器。

“为了能够消除太空中的威胁，我们必须能够发现、发现、追踪和打击这些威胁，”美国太空司令部司令斯蒂芬·惠廷将军在9月16日于夏威夷毛伊岛举行的AMOS会议上表示，就在几天后，该消息正式宣布。

“太空领域的目标定位技术正在日趋成熟，但仍有很长的路要走。”

根据指挥部公告，GHOST-R 旨在通过使用“商业开发的航天器、航天器和光电有效载荷来提供高分辨率的太空到太空图像，以表征地球同步轨道 (GEO) 中的驻留空间物体”，从而解决其中一些问题。

这些新合同是 RG-XX 计划的最新重大进展，该计划是美国太空部队的下一代轨道跟踪计划，旨在地球同步轨道上部署一支灵活、低成本的侦察卫星群，以帮助在本十年末之前建立美国在太空的防御能力。

“与国防工业大学 (DIU) 合作开发 GHOST-R 项目是一项真正的力量倍增器。我们正在利用快速原型制作技术，将商业技术应用于 RG-XX 项目的能力推向极限，”太空作战力量项目代理采购主管 (PAE) 布莱恩·麦克莱恩上校在新闻稿中表示。

诺斯罗普公司将交付一个“小型手提箱”大小的原型机，该原型机基于其 ESPASat-L 航天器，采用商用光学传感器，并在“24 个月的加速时间表”内生产完成。

“太空日益拥挤，竞争也日益激烈，我们的联合部队依赖于对轨道上正在发生的事情的清晰、及时的了解，”诺斯罗普公司副总裁瑞安·廷特纳在一份关于该交易的公司声明中表示。

根据该公司发布的消息，True Anomaly 将通过该计划交付其 Jackal 自主轨道飞行器和 Mosaic 指挥控制系统（一套动态操作传感器套件）。

“随着敏捷、机动性强的敌方平台能力不断提升，侦察架构不能再依赖少数精良的资产了，”公司首席执行官兼联合创始人伊文·罗杰斯在公告中表示。

五角大楼和相关公司至今都没有披露合同的价值或资金来源——尽管这笔钱并非来自仙女座计划，即太空部队为RG-XX设立的价值高达62亿美元的合同池，SSC的一位发言人告诉《防务新闻》。

官员们表示，新的 GHOST-R 原型机计划于 2028 年直接发射到地球同步轨道，并于 2029 年执行政府拥有和运营的任务。

凯蒂·利文斯通是《防务新闻》和《军事时报》的乌克兰特派记者。她常驻基辅，自俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰之初便开始报道此事。她曾是富布赖特学者，其获奖作品发表于欧洲和美国的多家媒体。