Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to Build Optical Payload for Space Force Mission

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to Build Optical Payload for Space Force Mission

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Space Program is building an optical space domain awareness payload for an upcoming mission by the U.S. Space Force. The planned mission, known as VICTUS HAZE, will be a tactically responsive space mission to demonstrate the ability to rapidly characterize an on-orbit threat.

The U.S. Space Force selected Long Beach, California-based Rocket Lab to execute a responsive launch with a maneuverable satellite, and it also selected Colorado-based True Anomaly to build a second maneuverable satellite to enable the end-to-end demonstration.

The payload for VICTUS HAZE will use the LLNL monolithic telescope technology. LLNL’s monolithic telescopes are built out of a single piece of fused silica, eliminating the need for alignment and calibration after manufacture, while still providing the best possible resolution. The robustness of the monolithic telescopes and their ability to work immediately after launch makes them ideal for responsive space missions. LLNL’s monolithic telescope was developed and patented by Lab employees Willem de Vries and Brian Bauman and former Lab employee Alex Pertica.

For VICTUS HAZE, the Space Safari Program Office of the U.S. Space Force’s Space System Command is partnering with the Defense Innovation Unit and SpaceWERX to advance commercial capabilities for tactically responsive space. Tactically responsive space focuses on all aspects of the national security imperative to deliver on-orbit capabilities to the joint force with speed and agility.

Established in January 2021, Space Safari is an acquisition program office responsible for responding to high-priority, urgent space needs by rapidly acquiring, integrating, and executing missions supporting U.S. Space Command requirements and other combatant commander needs.

The contractors for VICTUS HAZE will have until the fall of 2025 to build and test a launch vehicle, as well as two satellites and ground segments. LLNL will need to build, qualify, and integrate its optical payload with the Rocket Lab vehicle in time for launch. Upon receiving a notice to launch, Rocket Lab will have just 24 hours to be ready to launch the satellite. The Space Force expects the satellites to be operational shortly after launch.

“We are grateful to LLNL for providing their advanced optical payload for this pivotal demonstration,” said Lt. Col. Jason Altenhofen, director of operations for Space Safari. “Agile integration and rapid on-orbit initialization of external payloads are key enablers to meet the VICTUS HAZE mission objectives.”

This will be LLNL’s second payload for tactically responsive space missions. The first was the Tactically Responsive Launch-2 mission, which successfully launched and operated on-orbit in 2021 and 2022. “The Tactically Responsive Launch-2 project was a huge success for LLNL and our partners at Space Safari,” said John Ganino, the space hardware lead in the Lab’s Space Program.

“We proved that a motivated and agile interdisciplinary team can design, build, and launch optical telescopes on tactically responsive timelines to support the warfighter’s need for new mission capabilities," said Ganino. "It is with this same spirit that we will integrate our payload on a commercial spacecraft to accelerate responsive space timelines on VICTUS HAZE.”

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Publisher: SatNow
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GNSS Constellations - A list of all GNSS satellites by constellations

beidou

Satellite NameOrbit Date
BeiDou-3 G4Geostationary Orbit (GEO)17 May, 2023
BeiDou-3 G2Geostationary Orbit (GEO)09 Mar, 2020
Compass-IGSO7Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)09 Feb, 2020
BeiDou-3 M19Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)16 Dec, 2019
BeiDou-3 M20Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)16 Dec, 2019
BeiDou-3 M21Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)23 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 M22Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)23 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 I3Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)04 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 M23Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)22 Sep, 2019
BeiDou-3 M24Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)22 Sep, 2019

galileo

Satellite NameOrbit Date
GSAT0223MEO - Near-Circular05 Dec, 2021
GSAT0224MEO - Near-Circular05 Dec, 2021
GSAT0219MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0220MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0221MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0222MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0215MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0216MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0217MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0218MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017

glonass

Satellite NameOrbit Date
Kosmos 2569--07 Aug, 2023
Kosmos 2564--28 Nov, 2022
Kosmos 2559--10 Oct, 2022
Kosmos 2557--07 Jul, 2022
Kosmos 2547--25 Oct, 2020
Kosmos 2545--16 Mar, 2020
Kosmos 2544--11 Dec, 2019
Kosmos 2534--27 May, 2019
Kosmos 2529--03 Nov, 2018
Kosmos 2527--16 Jun, 2018

gps

Satellite NameOrbit Date
Navstar 82Medium Earth Orbit19 Jan, 2023
Navstar 81Medium Earth Orbit17 Jun, 2021
Navstar 78Medium Earth Orbit22 Aug, 2019
Navstar 77Medium Earth Orbit23 Dec, 2018
Navstar 76Medium Earth Orbit05 Feb, 2016
Navstar 75Medium Earth Orbit31 Oct, 2015
Navstar 74Medium Earth Orbit15 Jul, 2015
Navstar 73Medium Earth Orbit25 Mar, 2015
Navstar 72Medium Earth Orbit29 Oct, 2014
Navstar 71Medium Earth Orbit02 Aug, 2014

irnss

Satellite NameOrbit Date
NVS-01Geostationary Orbit (GEO)29 May, 2023
IRNSS-1IInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)12 Apr, 2018
IRNSS-1HSub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (Sub-GTO)31 Aug, 2017
IRNSS-1GGeostationary Orbit (GEO)28 Apr, 2016
IRNSS-1FGeostationary Orbit (GEO)10 Mar, 2016
IRNSS-1EGeosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)20 Jan, 2016
IRNSS-1DInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)28 Mar, 2015
IRNSS-1CGeostationary Orbit (GEO)16 Oct, 2014
IRNSS-1BInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)04 Apr, 2014
IRNSS-1AInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)01 Jul, 2013