The Space Force and the Pentagon have commissioned two companies to build reconnaissance satellites capable of producing detailed imagery of objects more than 22,000 miles above Earth. The planned spacecraft will capture high resolution views from one position in space to another.
Space Systems Command awarded prototype contracts to Northrop Grumman and True Anomaly on Sept. 18. The work falls under the Geosynchronous High-Resolution Optical Space-Based Tactical Reconnaissance program, known as GHOST-R.
The selection pairs Northrop Grumman, a veteran American defense prime, with True Anomaly, a space technology company founded four years ago. Both companies already have Space Force contracts to develop space based interceptors for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
The new satellites are intended to sharpen the military’s ability to locate and monitor potential threats in orbit. Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, addressed that challenge at the AMOS Conference in Maui, Hawaii, on Sept. 16.
“To be able to negate threats in space, we must be able to find, fix, track, and target those threats,” Whiting said. He added, “Targeting in the space domain is maturing, but it still has a long way to go.”
GHOST-R is designed to tackle part of that problem through commercial technology. According to the command announcement, the program will use “commercially developed space vehicles, buses, and electro-optical payloads to deliver high-resolution, space-to-space imagery for characterizing resident space objects in [geostationary Earth orbit] GEO.”
The prototype contracts mark the latest major development within RG-XX, the Space Force’s next generation orbital tracking initiative. That broader program seeks to field a fleet of agile, low cost reconnaissance satellites in geosynchronous orbit by the end of the decade.
Those spacecraft are intended to help expand American defense capacity in space. The GHOST-R effort also involves the Defense Innovation Unit, identified in the announcement by the abbreviation DIU.
“Collaborating with DIU on GHOST-R is a true force multiplier. We are leveraging rapid prototyping to push the envelope of what commercial tech can deliver to the RG-XX program,” Col. Bryon McClain, acting Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Space Combat Power, said in the release.
Northrop Grumman will provide a prototype described as being the size of a “small suitcase.” The spacecraft will be based on the company’s ESPASat-L platform and will use a commercial optical sensor.
The company is expected to produce that prototype on “an accelerated 24-month timeline.” Northrop’s vice president, Ryan Tintner, said the need for timely orbital awareness is growing as conditions in space become more challenging.
“Space is becoming more congested and contested every day, and our joint forces depend on clear, timely insight into what’s happening on orbit,” Tintner said in Northrop’s announcement about the contract.
True Anomaly will contribute its Jackal autonomous orbital vehicle and Mosaic command and control system. The company’s release said its offering also includes a dynamic operations sensor suite.
“As agile, maneuverable adversary platforms become more capable, the reconnaissance architecture can no longer rely on a handful of exquisite assets,” company CEO Even Rogers said in the announcement.
Neither the Pentagon nor the two companies has disclosed the contracts’ value or identified the source of their funding. A Space Systems Command spokesperson told Breaking Defense that the money did not come from Andromeda, the Space Force’s contract pool of up to $6.2 billion for RG-XX.
The GHOST-R prototypes are scheduled to launch directly into geosynchronous orbit by 2028. Officials said the spacecraft are then expected to fly missions owned and operated by the government by 2029.