The American “space industry” has long been dominated by four states, including Texas, Florida, California, and Virginia. Yet, the industry has continued to evolve, and Colorado is increasingly becoming a space-based state, as it is a hub for companies including Sierra Nevada Corporation and Special Aerospace, while it is also the current home to the U.S. Space Command, as well as three out of the six United States Space Force bases, and the Space Force Operations Command.
According to a recent Colorado Office of Economic Development report, the Centennial State is now home to more than 500 space-related companies, including nine of the country’s major space contractors. Last year, Colorado saw $22.8 billion in federal aerospace funding to companies headquartered in the state, while $12.3 billion in funding was provided to five of the state’s military bases, with $3.4 billion awarded to its federal research labs.
From the American Frontier to the Final Frontier
Two centuries ago, Colorado was a sparsely populated part of the American frontier. Today, it is leading the efforts in exploration and control of the final frontier of outer space.
It was the result of its being chosen as a strategic location for the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles during the Cold War, and later government contractors including Ball Aerospace and Lockheed Martin setting up shop in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains.
By July 2017, Colorado ranked just behind California in terms of aerospace economy, and was employing more than 25,000 private aerospace workers. Then, less than two years later, the sixth and newest branch of the U.S. military, the United States Space Force, was created. Peterson Space Force Base (SFB) and Schriever SFB in Colorado Springs, and Buckley SFB near Aurora, each play a crucial role in space operations, defense, and support for various missions.
As of last year, more than 2,000 aerospace firms were employing more than 55,000 employees directly, and an additional 184,000 indirectly.
Contracts Awarded For Cloud-based Ground Station Marketplace
This week, the U.S. Space Force awarded Auria Space and Sphinx Defense, both based in Colorado Springs, contracts worth a combined $17.6 million. The firms will each build a prototype cloud-based marketplace that can connect military satellite operations with commercial and government-owned antennas.
Auria’s contract was reported to be valued at $8.1 million, while Sphinx was awarded a $9.5 million contract. The marketplaces are meant to address bottlenecks that exist in military satellite operations, where there are more satellites than ground stations capable of communicating with them. The companies will work to increase the capacity of the aging Satellite Control Network (SCN), some of which are decades old and can only communicate with a single satellite at a time.
According to a report from Space News, “The joint antenna marketplace would function as a digital clearinghouse where satellite operations centers could dynamically schedule communication sessions — known as ‘contacts’ — with antennas, based on availability, bandwidth and mission needs.”
The Joint Antenna Marketplace (JAM) will allow commercial and government-owned ground infrastructure to operate as a single, cloud-based scheduling system, with the goal being to boost flexibility and reduce contact delays within the satellite network.
“JAM supports the U.S. Space Force Commercial Space Strategy by integrating commercial solutions into a hybrid space architecture at speed and scale,” said USSF Col. Patrick Little, senior material leader for SSC Tactical Command, Control, and Communications. “We are exercising Other Transaction Authorities and leveraging the software acquisition pathway to fully exploit available and evolving commercial antenna capacity which will minimize development and long-term sustainment costs of purpose-built government systems.”
