A multi-million dollar deal recently signed by the Air Force Research Laboratory could help propel its spacecraft program forward.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate announced last week that it awarded a $72 million contract to Advanced Space LLC. An aerospace software company based in Westminster, Colo., Advanced Space will build the spacecraft for the AFRL's Oracle program under the contract.
"As a company with a spacecraft at the Moon today, we place significant importance on furthering safe and transparent operations in cislunar space, Advanced Space's CEO, Bradley Cheetham said in a prepared statement.
Previously called the Cislunar Highway Patrol System, the Oracle spacecraft program is designed to track objects in what's called the "XGEO realm," according to a news release. XGEO refers to anything beyond geosynchronous orbit, where most Earth-orbiting spacecraft operate.
The Oracle spacecraft will operate in cislunar space or the area of space farther out between the Earth and the Moon.
"The area beyond that, out towards the moon, is really an underutilized space," said David Johnson, the division chief of the integrated experiments and research division in the ARFL's Space Vehicles Directorate. "As far as things are out by the Moon that's really sort of a blind spot."
Testing the Oracle spacecraft with Advanced Space's support would help the U.S. Space Force understand what's needed to implement the spacecraft as a "lasting capability," Johnson said.
AFRL selected Advanced Space through a "request for prototype proposal" that it put out late this spring, said Michael Lopez, the Oracle program manager.
"We don't have any assets out there that can do any space situational awareness," he said. "This program will provide the capability to detect and track things in cislunar space, such as the Artemis mission."
Advanced Space also owns and operates a lunar mission called CAPSTONE, which arrived at the Moon on Monday. It's the first commercial and privately-owned satellite to orbit the Moon, according to the company.
AFRL projects that the Oracle spacecraft will launch in late 2025, according to the release. Lopez said that AFRL is working with other organizations across the U.S. Space Force to prepare the spacecraft for launch.
"It's a tight schedule but not impossible," Lopez said.
Alongside testing the functions of the spacecraft itself, AFRL also wants to test what's called the Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic propellant. Refered to as ASCENT, it's a propulsion technology that's being developed by a different AFRL directorate that will be attached to the Oracle spacecraft, Johnson said.
The bulk of research and development for the Oracle spacecraft program will happen at Kirtland Air Force Base through AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate. AFRL started operations at the New Mexico base in 1949 and opened a new, 3,500-square-foot lab, called the Skywave Technology Laboratory, at the base earlier this year. It also announced the installation of a new three-dimension printer at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base east of Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday.
"We're very excited to be moving out here," Johnson said referring to the area of cislunar orbit. "We have a lot to learn about how to operate in this space and to better understand it, and this is a first step in helping us achieve that vision of expanding the domain of the Space Force beyond traditional orbits. We're happy and excited to be able to expand into that frontier for the Space Force."
