The U.S. military has asked two space companies to launch a satellite on short notice.
The U.S. Space Force has awarded contracts to Firefly Aerospace and Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems to mount a mission in 2023 called Victus Nox (Latin for “conquer the night”).
“This end-to-end mission will demonstrate the United States’ ability to rapidly place an asset on orbit when and where we need it, ensuring we can augment our space capabilities with very little notice,” Space Systems Command’s Lt. Col. MacKenzie Birchenough said in a statement (opens in new tab).
The Space Force plans to use Victus Nox for “space domain awareness,” which is a growing priority of the military as space traffic increases in orbit. Based on that description, the mission will likely help the military find and monitor spacecraft and space debris that could pose a threat to U.S. orbital assets.
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Firefly is tasked with launching Victus Nox in 2023 using its Alpha rocket, which just delivered its first satellites to orbit on Oct. 1, while Millennium will supply space and ground systems for the mission. (Millennium will build and operate the satellite, for example.)
The Space Force did not release the value of the contracts.
The new contracts follow a successful June 2021 demonstration mission under the military’s Tactically Responsive Space program, which aims to loft missions quickly to replace or augment satellites, especially in cases of crises or rapid deployments.
The Space Force is the first new U.S. military branch since the Air Force, which was created in 1947. (The Space Force is officially, however, part of the Air Force.)
Its work is of crucial importance, the U.S. military has emphasized, due to emergent threats from Russia and China seeking to challenge the United States’ longtime status as the world’s greatest space power.
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