Created to work with the commercial space industry, the Space Force office opens a new facility in Chantilly, Virginia. Colonel Richard Nicely, head of Space Systems Command’s commercial space office, said on May 11 that the site was chosen because of its proximity to other government agencies working with the commercial space industry.

“We wanted to be closer to the intelligence community, NASA and the Space Agency,” Nicely said in a webcast hosted by the National Space Safety Association.

The Office of Business Services, known as COMSO, will oversee the purchase of satellite services such as communications, imagery and weather data from the private sector. SpaceWERX will also include other organizations working with the commercial space industry, including the Space Domain Awareness data marketplace, the SSC Front Door initiative, and a new program that explores ways the space industry can support the military in conflict.

Knicely said the Chantilly facility will become “a commercial hub for collaboration.” The grand opening is scheduled for June 7, when the office will host an industry day dedicated to space navigation, positioning and timing services. Nicely said there is a “huge appetite” for commercial space services, but it will take some time to remove bureaucratic and budgetary hurdles to fund these services.

Most of the financing for commercial services today comes from satellite communications and space awareness data. His emerging interests include GPS-independent space-based PNT, weather data and space-based data transmission, he said.

Services get a small share of Space Force funding

Industry analyst Mike Tierney, head of legislative affairs for the National Space Safety Association, said companies in the space industry may have set expectations too high for the Space Force’s service provision. For example, while the 2024 budget spends about $18 million on commercial domain information, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on government systems.

He said on May 9 that there is a gap between industry expectations and budget reality. “There is an opportunity to clarify what the COMSO office actually plans to get,” Tierney said. “If we can align expectations, I think we’ll have a much better dialogue between business and government about where the right areas are.” Todd Harrison, managing director of Metrea Strategic Insights, said the Space Force should “show us their plans for how exactly they will use the commercial space.”

Speaking at an NSSA webinar on May 9, he said the industry had heard “a lot of word” from the government and now wants to see more details.

“Where can the Space Force use commercial space services? There are all kinds of electro-optical imaging, space-based radar, radio frequency sensing, in-orbit satellite maintenance, you can move on,” Harrison said. “And I don’t see any specific plans. And most importantly, I don’t see that in a budget request.”

“Commercial services don’t work for everyone,” he said. But we should see it in the budget where appropriate. We need to see the actual fund flows. And mostly we don’t see that,” Harrison said. “The commercial space office has a lot of work to do to keep up.”

According to Harrison, if the government does not support some of these services, companies may not survive and “Space Force may lose an opportunity to use something that has already invested so much private equity in it.”