THE NEW SPACE RACE: Space Force official: Commercial satellites can do a lot more than we thought.

Now, the military is starting to use a commercial model for missions that, at least today, lack any meaningful commercial market. In these cases, the Space Force and the NRO must go out and pay a company to build an entire fleet of satellites that will exclusively serve the government. But rather than dictating stringent requirements and micromanaging every phase of the program, as the Space Force and NRO have typically done, they’re going with a more hands-off approach.

This change in procurement strategy is yielding results, officials said last week in a hearing convened by the House Armed Services Committee. Numerous companies are now manufacturing satellite buses, the basic chassis that hosts instruments, sensors, and payloads tailored for a range of missions. Most of them come from SpaceX, which mass-produces satellites for its Starlink broadband network. But there are others, and the market is richer than many US officials thought.

“We’re finding that commercial buses are not only available, but they’re also capable of doing a lot of what our missions require, and they’re available at a much lower cost than going off and developing a brand-new bus,” Scolese said.

It’s amazing what private enterprise can accomplish when Uncle Sam stays out of the way, but only to Uncle Sam.