The U.S. Space Force is increasingly exploring commercial options to provide space domain awareness on orbit, following years of commitment to “exploit what we have, buy what we can, and build what we must” as the service harnesses advancements of commercial space innovation.

Our CEO, Robert Carlisle, speaks to Aviation Week about Pentagon's shift into to commercial space.

Argo Space, an El Segundo, California-based company building refuelable, maneuverable spacecraft using water propulsion, announced July 29 that it will fly a long-range, high-voltage X-ray imaging system built by ThinkOrbital on its inaugural mission in 2026. The company is building its Argonaut spacecraft using water propellant to support on-orbit logistics and defense purposes such as space domain awareness, Argo Space CEO and co-founder Robert Carlisle tells Aerospace DAILY. Before co-founding Argo Space in 2022, Carlisle spent half a decade working for SpaceX, including in roles leading sales for commercial launches and national security missions.

The RG-XX acquisition plan that the Space Force has disclosed so far “is a very promising approach,” that hearkens back to the Pentagon’s contracts with SpaceX, he says.

“Because the government leaned into buying commercial, we were able to give them a really unprecedented cost point and speed of execution,” he notes. That helped the U.S. military save money, but also to deploy capabilities faster and build a more resilient architecture.

With the way RG-XX is shaping up, “that might provide an opportunity to do the same type of thing for space domain awareness,” Carlisle says.

‍

Mission-critical space operations demand unprecedented mobility. Argo Space's high-deltaV, refuelable spacecraft architecture delivers the agility needed for tomorrow's space missions.

Read the full article at Aviation Week.