To remain competitive in today’s contested space domain, the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Safari program is working on its third tactically responsive space (TacRS) mission which will perform rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) with the help of two commercial partners. The mission, named VICTUS HAZE, is set to launch in Fall 2025.

Earlier this year, the USSF Space Systems Command awarded Rocket Lab USA, Inc. and True Anomaly a total of more than $60 million to deliver on its latest threat-response exercise.

VICTUS NOX laid the foundation

Following a successful VICTUS NOX exercise in September 2023, which demonstrated the ability to launch a satellite into orbit within just 24 hours of receiving the command, Space Safari aims to continue pushing boundaries on the art of the possible. “We’re continuing to demonstrate we (USSF) provide rapid capabilities on demand at relevant speed for our warfighters,” said Lt. Col. Jason Altenhofen, Space Systems Command Director of Operations for Space Safari.

Last year’s project set the standards high: the activation phase was completed within 57 hours of the 60-hour goal; ready for launch within 24 hours; and only took 37 hours of the 48-hour goal to complete the on-orbit initialization phase. “We really wanted to stress the system as much as possible with VICTUS NOX,” Lt. Col. Altenhofen told Constellations in an interview. “We moved quickly and broke a lot of barriers.””

Still, there’s always more work to be done, and VICTUS HAZE will apply the lessons learned from VICTUS NOX while also demonstrating how much the USSF can exceed their own mission success criteria. “We wanted to push for capability that we thought had a good chance of showing promise for future operations going forward,” Lt. Col. Altenhofen stated. “We’d like to use this mission and opportunity to prove out some of these commercial options that are being invested in from private industry.”

And the winners are … Rocket Lab & True Anomaly

The initial request for proposal effort for VICTUS HAZE was released by Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Commercial Operating Solicitation in August of 2023. Through that process, Rocket Lab was selected as a winner.

“In parallel, we collaborated with SpaceWERX on a TacRS challenge, which is a small business innovative research phase-2 contract effort,” Lt. Col. Altenhofen continued. As True Anomaly held a phase-2 contract through a SpaceWERX award, Space Safari was able to partner with the company, and leverage a strategic funding increase, otherwise known as a STRATFI. “That’s only available if you have an existing phase-2,” he clarified.

While VICTUS HAZE is an exercise unlike any other, the teams involved aim to leverage existing technologies for successful operation. “We’re still doing some very interesting and novel things with Space Safari and partners on the program, but a lot of it is business as usual and part of the Rocket Lab machine,” Brian Rogers told Constellations. Rogers currently serves as the Vice President for Global Launch Services at Rocket Lab, USA.

“There’s no technology development required here,” added Richard French, Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for Space Systems at Rocket Lab. “What I think is really exciting about this is putting our satellite capabilities together with our launch vehicle capabilities for the first time to have an integrated launch and satellite solution, which can be responsive.”

Meanwhile, True Anomaly is working on a series of test campaigns for ground and on-orbit capabilities to ensure low risk delivery for VICTUS HAZE. In October, the company announced selecting Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket to launch its Jackal Autonomous Orbital Vehicle for the upcoming TacRS exercise.

With its third test flight taking place early next year, True Anomaly has been focused on delivering for the mission. “We think that maneuvering without regret is important to this mission so we are maximizing the amount of [delta-velocity] that we can get out of our system,” said Chris Daywalt, Senior Director of Programs at True Anomaly.

Similar game, different rules

VICTUS HAZE offers commercial partners a little more operational freedom. “With VICTUS NOX, we were able to take a GEO bus from an existing production line and modify it for LEO,” Lt. Col. Altenhofen stated. “With VICTUS HAZE, we left it up to the providers on their approach. We just put our tactically responsive requirements out there and industry ran with it.” The key to this mission is to leverage and employ existing commercial technologies to meet warfighting mission needs.

The winning goal remains: Push the boundaries on speed and solution delivery.

According to Lt Col. Altenhofen, both Rocket Lab and True Anomaly recently held a system requirements review to provide updates on program risks and schedule, and the project is tracking for on-time delivery of space vehicles and launch.

Additionally, the team has been working with partners at the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) Tap Lab “on integration of parties to provide a robust end-to-end demonstration, which includes training with the operational community,” he stated. The SDA Tap Lab serves on the team to help with tasking and on-orbit execution decision making, which help will help propel SDA tools.

Space Domain Awareness is key

As adversarial nations continue to enhance their space weaponization capabilities, U.S. senior leaders are continuously stressing the importance of space domain awareness. “There’s a need to understand what’s going on up there,” Lt. Col. Altenhofen said. “Sometimes that might involve a responsive launch approach, especially when rendezvous-proximity operations are required. Maneuvering a prepositioned space vehicle may also meet the need. Ultimately, it’s about providing information so our decision authorities have the correct context to make effective decisions to take the initiative!”

And the mission doesn’t stop at VICTUS HAZE. A recent announcement cited VICTUS SURGO and VICTUS SALO as upcoming missions with contract award winner, Impulse Space. While the approach to the mission—prepositioning and maneuvering assets on-orbit to meet the urgent need from the combatant command—is slightly different, the goal remains the same, Lt. Col. Altenhofen added.

Additionally, according to a Space News report, VICTUS SALO will test the use of modularity and plug-and-play capabilities in collaboration with The Aerospace Corporation.

An early operational mission named VICTUS SOL is also in the works.

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