The Space Force last week awarded Firefly Aerospace a nearly $22 million contract to launch a mission aimed at transitioning the service’s vision for rapid response capabilities from a demonstration to operations.
The mission, dubbed Victus Sol, will be the fifth Tactically Responsive Space mission for the service since September of 2023 when it worked with satellite and rocket companies to deliver a spacecraft in a matter of months and launch it with just 27 hours of notice.
To date, those activities have all been geared toward demonstrating the concept, but a spokesperson for Space Safari, which manages the missions, told Defense News on Friday that Victus Sol is “moving beyond demonstrations” and will support Space Force operations.
The spokesperson would not confirm any details about the mission, including its payload, objective or launch date. However, fiscal 2025 budget documents say the mission could launch in late 2025 or 2026, and the service has indicated that 2026 is its target for flying operational Tactically Responsive Space missions.
The Space Force defines Tactically Responsive Space as the ability to react quickly to the threats that come from operating in an increasingly congested and adversarial space environment. That could mean launching satellites on short notice, maneuvering a prepositioned, spare spacecraft to augment a degraded system or buying data from a commercial partner during a crisis.
Firefly, which launched the Space Force’s first Tactically Responsive Space mission, said its Alpha rocket will be on standby for Victus Sol. As with other responsive missions, the Space Force will give Firefly a notice to prepare the vehicle for payload integration and launch.
“Firefly has ramped up our Alpha production line to meet that demand and provide flexibility to support the Space Force’s urgent needs that keep us ahead of the game,” Firefly CEO Jason Kim said in a statement on Friday.
Space Safari is slated to launch Victus Haze, its next Tactically Responsive Space mission, later this year. That mission will feature two launch vehicles: Firefly’s Alpha and Rocket Lab’s Electron. Firefly will carry payloads from True Anomaly and Rocket Lab will carry its own satellites.
As part of Victus Haze, the satellites will be required to maneuver from a threat in space. The Space Force and U.S. Space Command have identified a growing need for satellites to be able to maneuver away from threats like debris or toward objects the U.S. may want to observe more closely.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
