A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches the Space Development Agency’s third Tranche 1 data transport mission to low Earth orbit. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX two launch task orders worth $1.6 billion to deploy military satellite constellations, marking the largest publicly announced batch of missions yet under the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 program.
The award covers 18 Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California through the end of 2027 in support of the Space Based Sensing and Targeting portfolio, a collection of satellite programs intended to improve how the military detects, tracks and communicates information about threats in near real time.
The task orders reinforce SpaceX’s central role in the military’s next-generation satellite networks. Beyond providing the launches, the company is building two of the portfolio’s largest satellite systems under separate multibillion-dollar contracts, giving it responsibility for both placing the constellations in orbit and supplying key elements of the architecture itself.
Space Based Sensing and Targeting is one of the Space Force’s newly established acquisition portfolios. It oversees the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer, a constellation of infrared satellites designed to detect and track advanced missile threats; the Space Data Network Backbone, an optically linked communications network being built by SpaceX to move large volumes of military data across the Joint Force; and the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator program, another SpaceX-led constellation intended to track aircraft and other airborne targets from orbit.
