WASHINGTON — A Space Force office created to work with the industrial space industry is opening up a brand new facility in Chantilly, Virginia.
Col. Richard Kniseley, head of the Business Space Office at Space Systems Command, said May 11 the placement was chosen for its proximity to other government agencies that also work with the industrial space industry.
“We desired to be near the intelligence community, NASA, and the Space Development Agency,” Kniseley said on a webcast hosted by the National Security Space Association.
The industrial services office, often called COMSO, will oversee the procurement of satellite-based services from the private sector reminiscent of communications, imagery and weather data. It also will absorb other organizations that work with the industrial space industry, including SpaceWERX, the Space Domain Awareness data marketplace, the SSC Front Door initiative and a brand new program that’s ways the space industry could support the military during conflicts.
The Chantilly facility will probably be a “industrial collaboration center,” said Kniseley. The grand opening is planned for June 7 when the office will host an industry day focused on space-based navigation, positioning and timing services.
Kniseley said there’s a “huge appetite” for industrial space services but it is going to take a while to work through bureaucratic and budgeting hurdles with the intention to fund these services.
A lot of the funding for industrial services today is for satellite-based communications and space domain awareness data. Emerging areas of interest, he said, include space-based PNT that shouldn’t be reliant on GPS, weather data and space-based data transport.
Services get a small share of Space Force funding
Industry analyst Mike Tierney, head of legislative affairs on the National Security Space Association, noted that the businesses within the space sector could have set expectations too high in relation to Space Force procurement of services.
Spending on industrial space domain awareness data, for instance, is about $18 million within the 2024 budget, in comparison with lots of of hundreds of thousands of dollars budgeted for government-owned systems.
There’s a disconnect between industry’s expectations and the budget reality, he said May 9. “The COMSO office has a chance to make clear” what it realistically plans to purchase, said Tierney. “And if we are able to get alignment by way of expectations, I feel we’d have loads higher dialogue between industrial and government about where the suitable areas are.”
Todd Harrison, managing director of Metrea Strategic Insights, said the Space Force must “show us their plan for the way they’re going to completely leverage industrial space.”
Speaking May 9 at an NSSA webinar, said the industry has heard “a number of talk” from the federal government and now desires to see more specifics.
“Where could the Space Force be leveraging industrial space services? There’s every kind of electro optical imagery, space-based radar, radio-frequency sensing, on-orbit servicing of satellites, you’ll be able to go down the list,” said Harrison. “And I don’t really see much of a plan in any respect. And most significantly, I don’t see it within the budget request.”
“Business services don’t work for every little thing,” he said. “But where appropriate, we must always see that within the budget. We must always see real funding streams. And for probably the most part, we’re not seeing that,” Harrison said. “The industrial space office has got a number of work to do to catch up.”
There’s a risk, said Harrison, that if the federal government doesn’t support a few of these services, firms may not survive and “the Space Force could lose this chance to leverage what a number of private capital has already invested in.”