SSC opens Virginia center to boost commercial space strategy

By Apurva Minchekar / June 7, 2023 at 4:08 PM

The Space Force’s Space Systems Command has opened a collaboration center in Virginia to strengthen its commercial space strategy and facilitate the delivery of commercial capabilities to the warfighter, the command announced June 6.

The Commercial Space Marketplace for Innovation and Collaboration is a newly established effort between SSC and the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corp., providing a platform for the command to increase its partnership with industry and drive cooperation with government agency partners, according to the announcement.

“The National Capital Region is a sweet spot for connecting with government agencies in the intelligence community as well as with key space agencies such as NASA and the Space Development Agency,” Col. Richard Kniseley, SSC’s commercial space office senior materiel leader, said. “It is also a major hub for commercial space industry companies.”

In addition, the COSMIC center will also provide space for analysis, STEM outreach, workforce development and technology transition and transfer advertisement provided by VT-ARC, according to the announcement.

COSMIC is SSC’s newly rebranded and expanded version of the Commercial Service Office, focused on facilitating commercial technology and service transfer whenever required, SSC said.

According to the announcement, COMSO is currently working via COSMIC and SSC’s Front Door for rapid scale-up of commercial tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking services as well as other off-the-shelf capabilities that can be enhanced to scale with speed and cost efficiency.

The command said COSMIC was possible through a partnership intermediary agreement between the Basic Research Innovation and Collaboration Partnership and the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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