Orion Space Solutions is building the Tetra-5 constellation for Space Force experiments to demonstrate autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations and docking for on-orbit refueling. (Credit: Orion Space Solutions)
SPACEPOWER 2024 — The new command and control (C2) software developed by the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Space RCO) for maneuvering satellites in the future will be used by Space Force spacecraft performing “orbital warfare” missions, according to Space RCO Director Kelly Hammett.
The Rapid Resilient Command and Control (R2C2) program is managed by the Combined Program Office (CPO), which was stood up in 2023 to combine legacy projects from Space RCO, headquartered at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, and the Space Force’s primary acquisition unit Space Systems Command (SSC) headquartered in Los Angeles. The program is aimed at rapidly fielding C2 capabilities for use by systems performing what the service calls dynamic space operations, using a commercial cloud architecture.
“This fall, we have already established live contacts with flying satellites down in Kirtland through the experimental systems” operated by Space Systems Command’s prototyping center there headed by Col. Joseph Roth, Hammett told reporters at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower 2024 conference in Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday.
The “intent,” he said, is to use R2C2 “to fly some of the further experimental satellites,” such as the Tetra constellation of small satellites being built for the Space Force by Orion Space Solutions, a unit of Arcfield, to demonstrate autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations and docking for on-orbit refueling.
“Eventually all the flying systems for Delta 9, the Orbital Warfare Delta, will use R2C2,” Hammett added, noting that Space Operations Command “just signed out a minimum to that effect.”
Delta 9 is responsible for “protect and defend operations and providing national decision authorities with response options to deter and, when necessary, defeat orbital threats. Additionally, Delta 9 supports Space Domain Awareness by conducting space-based battlespace characterization operations and also conducts on-orbit experimentation and technology demonstrations,” according to a Space Operations Command fact sheet. In particular, it operates the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites that keep eyes on adversary activities on orbit.
‘I think there [are] things that we will need to be able to, I guess I’ll say, ‘dogfight’ in space,” Lt. Gen. Doug Schiess, commander of Space Forces – Space, the Space Force unit that undertakes operations for US Space Command, told reporters on Wednesday.
“Kelly’s point, I think, is he’s looking to the future. He’s looking to where we’re going to go and, being a guy that’s eventually going to get those systems, I’m hoping that we are continuing to do those kind of things so that we have the best space to learn. Because when we get to a conflict, we may need to, use systems to negate somebody else’s ability to attack us. We’re going to need that,” he added.
In particular, Schiess cited the growing threat from China, which is increasingly deploying highly mobile satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit where many high-value US military satellites are stationed.
“China is building a kill web, kill chain, whatever you want to call it, with 400 different ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] satellites … to the point where they can effectively track target our forces almost all the way from Hawaii, maybe even all the way from the coast of California. And so then that puts those forces at risk. And so we need to have effectors that allow us to negate their ability to use them,” he said.
