Power arcade: Outer space military technology

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The US Department of the Air Force launched the navigation technology satellite-3 (NTS-3) Vanguard on the USSF-106 mission in Florida in August. NTS-3 is a payload for ensuring accurate and responsive positioning, navigation, and timing in space for the maiden US national security launch from a Vulcan rocket.  

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The US Air Force contracted ballooning company Urban Sky in August to produce small stratospheric balloons to assist or replace satellites.  

The US Space Force, in collaboration with SpaceX, initiated the eighth operation of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle on a Falcon 9 rocket in August. The X-37B is a versatile spaceplane that conducts numerous next-generation tests.  

US defence firm Northrop Grumman recently conducted a rendezvous, proximity operation, and docking demonstration with space firms Starlab Space Stations and Voyager Technologies, in a bid to activate fully autonomous capability of the Cygnus spacecraft for cargo delivery operations to low Earth orbit space stations.  

American defence manufacturer General Atomics (GA) and Canadian satellite company Kepler Communications successfully demonstrated bidirectional air-to-space optical communications between GA’s Optical Communication Terminal mounted on a jet and a Kepler satellite in low earth orbit to build secure, high data-rate communication between airborne and space-based objects.  

Galileo, the European Union's global navigation satellite system, tested the latest ground-based uplink array antenna at the European Space Agency’s site in Belgium. Produced under the Horizon 2020 programme, the modern antenna will support Galileo missions

The W-3 capsule, co-developed by Varda Industries and the US Air Force and launched in March, re-entered Earth at speeds exceeding Mach 25 and landed in Australia in May. The W-3 provides data to improve hypersonic navigation, orbital economy applications, and assist missions in low earth orbit.  

The Canadarm2 robot arm of the International space station (ISS) successfully captured the US firm Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo craft, in collaboration with National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and ensured supplies for the ISS’ Expedition 73 crew in September.

US defence company Lockheed Martin’s 21 Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites, offering reliable and military intelligence data globally, arrived at its facility in September. They will be a part of the country’s Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture programme.

German laser company Mynari delivered CONDOR Mk3 optical communications terminals, including the first full delivery for Tranche 1 of the US Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture programme. The terminal, with its enhanced performance, is suitable for satellite constellations.