Two contracts, three companies, one strategic push
The U.S. Space Force awarded two separate satellite production contracts in quick succession this week, collectively worth more than 527 million dollars and targeting geostationary orbit — long considered a critical but increasingly contested domain for military communications.
The larger of the two deals, valued at 437 million dollars, goes to Viasat and satellite operator SES, who will work together to design and build four small geostationary satellites under the Protected Tactical Satcom-Global (PTS-G) program. The initiative is intended to give U.S. forces and their allies access to protected tactical communications links — ones capable of withstanding jamming and electronic interference — on a truly global basis. The pairing of Viasat's communications technology expertise with SES's operational track record reflects the increasingly hybrid nature of Pentagon procurement, where commercial operators are pulled deeper into the national security supply chain.
The second award, worth 90 million dollars, landed with Rocket Lab — and it carries particular significance. It is the first geostationary satellite production contract the New Zealand- and U.S.-based company has ever won from the Space Force. Under the deal, Rocket Lab will build and operate two satellites fitted with optical payloads. Details about the nature of those payloads have not been disclosed publicly, which is consistent with the classification standards typically applied to defense-related space systems.
A milestone moment for Rocket Lab's space systems business
Rocket Lab has spent several years quietly assembling a satellite manufacturing capability through targeted acquisitions, and this contract signals that the strategy is bearing tangible results. Breaking into the GEO military market — historically the territory of primes like Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin — is a meaningful step for a company still widely associated with its small Electron launch vehicle.
What makes the award particularly notable is its scope: Rocket Lab will not only manufacture the two satellites but also operate them on orbit. That end-to-end responsibility positions the company as something closer to a full-service space systems integrator, a role it has been deliberately cultivating alongside its launch business and its forthcoming medium-lift rocket, Neutron.
A branch built for growth — but constrained by its own pace
Both contracts land against a backdrop of deliberate institutional expansion. General Chance Saltzman, the Space Force Chief of Space Operations, confirmed this week that the branch is on course to double its active-duty force by 2030. That goal, however, is not without friction. Saltzman acknowledged that training infrastructure and the speed at which new operational units can be stood up represent the primary limiting factors on how quickly the branch can grow.
Founded in December 2019, the Space Force remains the youngest U.S. military branch and is still defining the contours of its role. The combination of rapid personnel growth, multi-hundred-million-dollar procurement awards, and a broadening industrial base suggests the Pentagon is treating space less as a support domain and more as a warfighting environment in its own right.
Whether the Space Force can effectively integrate satellites built by companies as different as Viasat, SES, and Rocket Lab into a coherent, interoperable network remains an open question — and arguably the most consequential one as this ambitious build-out moves forward.
