SMART: Space Force turning to commercial sats to enhance in-space monitoring.

Space Force interest in commercially owned neighborhood watch satellites largely has been limited to experiments — in part because commercial capabilities are somewhat embryonic, as license restrictions on sales of what is often called “non-Earth imaging” were lifted only last year.

That said, the Space Force in March released a request for information (RFI) seeking industry ideas to inform its early work to develop concepts for “for a constellation of free-flyer space vehicles with electro-optical payloads to detect, track, and characterize resident space objects in geosynchronous orbit.” The RFI explained that at the moment the service wants ideas to “support near and midterm studies and acquisition decisions” about satellites that can not just sit still and take pictures of adversary satellites but also perform “rendezvous and proximity operations” to stay up close to their targets.

Meanwhile, Gagnon stressed that the Space Force is “making great progress” in its current efforts to integrate commercial capabilities and thereby enhance its space monitoring chops.

Faster, please — and probably cheaper, too.