The Victus Haze mission is more complex than Victus Nox, a Space Force spokesman said, involving two prime contractors, two spacecraft and two rocket launches from different spaceports, all are timed to take place at short intervals “to keep the demonstration as realistic as possible”. Ars.
“This demonstration will ultimately prepare the U.S. Space Force to provide future force to combatant commands to conduct rapid operations in response to enemy aggression above orbit,” Space Systems Command said in a statement.
Confidence in the commercial space
“This is a really important operational demonstration that really pushes the technology envelope and shows a lot of confidence in the U.S. industrial base,” Rogers said.
“Essentially, this is about characterizing an unknown capability for the first time in low Earth orbit,” Rogers said in an interview with Ars. “There are a lot of challenges that come with that, coherent coverage with communications, how do you track an object moving in low Earth orbit with domain awareness Confined space, what is the appropriate level of autonomy and human interaction?
True Anomaly's first two Jackal satellites were launched on SpaceX's rideshare mission last month, but the company announced a few weeks later that the two satellites would not be able to complete the rendezvous demonstration according to their plan. This could be a precursor to the type of activity True Anomaly and Rocket Lab will show on Victus Haze.
Rogers said his company is working on two more demonstration missions that will fly before Victus Haze.
The Army's Defense Innovation Unit awarded $32 million to Rocket Lab for the Victus Haze mission. True Anomaly's contract with SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the Space Force, is worth $30 million. True Anomaly is contributing $30 million in private capital to help pay for the mission, bringing the total cost of Victus Haze to about $92 million. Space Safari, part of Space Systems Command, oversaw the entire project.
“We see a significant opportunity to take advantage of these changes,” said Col. Bryon McClain, Space Systems Command's program executive director for space domain awareness and warfighting power. new commercial space industry to counter China's accelerating US threat. “The United States has the world's most innovative space industry. Victus Haze will demonstrate, under real operational conditions, our ability to respond to irresponsible behavior in orbit.”
“Once the construction phase is complete, the mission will enter several sequential phases including hot standby, activation, alert and launch phases,” the Space Force said. “While this is a coordinated demonstration, each vendor will be provided with its own launch and mission profile.”
True Anomaly's Jackal satellite, roughly the size of a refrigerator, will launch on a “rapid rideshare” mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida or the Space Systems Command said. Vandenberg Space Force in California. This will most likely be a rideshare launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Launching on a rideshare flight comes with different challenges than launching on a dedicated rocket, as the Victus Nox mission did done last year.
True Anomaly says it can get the satellite out of storage and integrate it with the rocket within 12 to 84 hours, depending on the launch provider's flight cadence. Following True Anomaly's Jackal launch, the Space Force will request a 24-hour call from Rocket Lab to launch their satellite, similar in size to True Anomaly's spacecraft, on an Electron rocket from New Zealand or from Virginia. Rocket Lab's launch must be precisely timed to allow its satellite to rendezvous with True Anomaly's spacecraft in orbit.
