The Defense Department’s operationally responsive space office has chosen SpaceDev, Inc., a self-proclaimed developer of innovative space technologies headquartered in Ponway, Calif., to provide the spacecraft bus for its upcoming Jumpstart experiment. The company will provide its Trailblazer spacecraft bus as the primary payload for the Jumpstart mission, according to a May 28 release from the ORS office, which is located at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Jumpstart is designed to validate new processes and procedures for quickly placing satellites in orbit to support the needs of combatant commanders for increased space-based communications and information-gathering capability in crises or during conflict. A SpaceX Falcon 1 launch vehicle is set to carry the Trailblazer, along with several experimental ancillary payloads into space in late June from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Trailblazer will serve as a risk-reduction platform for the type of flexible, modular bus design that DOD wants to support future ORS missions.
How Miss America 2024 Took the Air Force Somewhere New
Dec. 20, 2024
When 2nd Lt. Madison Marsh became the first ever active service member crowned Miss America on Jan. 14, top Air Force officials recognized a rare opportunity to reach women and girls who otherwise might not consider military service as an option.