SpaceX awarded $29M for fleet surveillance, early integration studies

The Space Force this week awarded SpaceX a $29 million contract to conduct early integration and fleet surveillance work for non-national security space missions.

The contract, awarded Nov. 9, falls under the company's Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement contract. The Space and Missile Systems Center's Launch Enterprise Directorate told Inside Defense in an email the early integration studies will help the service gather information about compatibility between a launch vehicle and a spacecraft. The fleet surveillance work helps ensure there are no crossover issues between the various missions SpaceX is conducting.

"Fleet surveillance is an important component of our government mission assurance responsibility that has helped lead to this 100% mission success," SMC said in the statement.

Along with helping the service understand crossover risk, the fleet surveillance efforts will offer insight into SpaceX's work to refurbish previously flown hardware at the launch site. This is particularly relevant as the Space Force plans to incorporate reusability into upcoming SpaceX launches.