Vol. 56, October 2024
Key Points
Today, all U.S. military services and operations
rely on space capabilities and effects delivered
from the on-orbit architecture. Assured access to
space and robust launch infrastructure is a critical
foundation for sustaining space superiority.
Launch operations remain a challenging mission
and must not be taken for granted.
The U.S. Space Force (USSF) must take steps
to increase launch confidence, capacity, and
cadence while reducing costs to deliver the
space architecture needed for great power
competition and contesting space superiority.
Despite a historic launch rate and multiple
potential launch providers, national security
space launch (NSSL) is currently less robust
than many realize.
USSF can help reach its launch goals by
diversifying both launch providers and launch
sites, continuing its research and development
investments in rocket technology, and actively
monitoring the launch supply chain. These
efforts should be a national priority.
As the Chief of Space Operations (CSO) Gen B. Chance Saltzman
established at this year’s Mitchell Institute Spacepower Security Forum,
“For our service, space superiority is the rst core function. It is the ability
to contest and, when necessary, control the space domain at the time and
place of our choosing.” At the most fundamental level, the Space Force must
have assured access to space to leverage the benets of the space domain. For
systems to create desired eects in, from, and to space, they must rst get to
space. Moreover, the relationship between the scale and scope of necessary
on-orbit architectures and the scale and scope of launch infrastructure is
interconnected. Consequently, the nation requires a robust set of launch
options. is, in turn, demands developing a national launch enterprise with
the right levels of condence, capacity, cadence, and cost. Achieving these
goals necessitates commitment from Department of Defense leadership and
Congress when it comes to both policy and budget decisions. It also compels
the U.S. Space Force (USSF) to smartly accept greater levels of risk and to
weather inevitable failures inherent on the path to progress. e service must
retain a diverse set of launch providers, expand options for launch locations,
continue to invest in rocket research and development (R&D), and maintain
awareness of consequential supply chain issues. Given the importance and
ubiquity of space-based capabilities to both everyday life as well as to the
most basic of military operations in support of global safety and security,
these eorts should be a national priority.
Abstract
Launch: The Fundamental
Prerequisite for Space Superiority
by Col Charles S. Galbreath, USSF (Ret.)
Senior Fellow for Space Studies, the Mitchell Institute Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence
MITCHELL INSTITUTE
Policy Paper
Figure 1: An Atlas V rocket launches from the Space Launch
Complex (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,
FL with two satellite payloads for the USSF-12 mission.
Credit: U.S. Space Force Photo, DVIDS
