U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) said on Apr. 11 that SSC’s Space Safari program office, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, and the Space Force’s SpaceWERX innovation arm have awarded contracts worth $32 million to Colorado-based Rocket Lab [RKLB] and $30 million to Colorado’s True Anomaly for the VICTUS HAZE Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) mission to show how the United States could use rendezvous and proximity operations to counter “irresponsible” adversary behavior on orbit.
Space Force has said that China and Russia have had such missions and that China has a grappling arm able to pull other countries’ satellites out of orbit. In fact, all three countries have pursued rendezvous and proximity operations in the last two decades to gain advantage and knowledge of what the other guy is up to.
While VICTUS HAZE focuses on the rapid countering of adversary behavior on orbit, Space Force is also examining the use of rendezvous and proximity operations for refueling U.S. satellites and removing orbital debris.
“Industry is advancing at an unprecedented pace that will provide the Space Force additional options to quickly respond to adversary aggression,” Lt. Col. MacKenzie Birchenough, SSC’s materiel leader for Space Safari, said in a statement. “VICTUS HAZE will demonstrate and prove capabilities to be used for future TacRS operations in direct support of urgent Combatant Command on-orbit needs.”
Rocket Lab and True Anomaly are to deliver their proposed VICTUS HAZE systems “no later than fall 2025,” SSC said.
VICTUS HAZE “will ultimately prepare the United States Space Force to provide future forces to Combatant Commands to conduct rapid operations in response to adversary on-orbit aggression,” the command said.
Rocket Lab said it is to launch its VICTUS HAZE spacecraft on the company’s Electron rocket within 24 hours of receiving a “go” notice.
“Rocket Lab will configure a Pioneer class spacecraft bus to meet the unique requirements of the VICTUS HAZE mission and launch the spacecraft on Electron from either Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand or Launch Complex 2 in Wallops, Va.,” the company said. “Once on orbit, the spacecraft will conduct a variety of dynamic space operations to demonstrate SDA [space domain awareness] characterization capabilities with True Anomaly’s spacecraft, the Jackal autonomous orbital vehicle (AOV).”
True Anomaly said that it is to launch Jackal from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. or Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. and that SSC will be able to use the Jackal AOV and the company’s Mosaic integrated mission software after VICTUS NOX.
True Anomaly said that its TacRS demonstrations “will include an upgraded variant for its Jackal AOV that enable multi-orbit missions with a high-acceleration and high delta-V propulsion system being developed with its propulsion supplier, Agile Space Industries.”
True Anomaly, which is responsible for selecting its launch provider, is currently not disclosing who that will be.
In February, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said that he wants VICTUS HAZE to point toward future satellite launches within hours, not days, of a “go” order (Defense Daily, Feb. 13).