CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Now that U.S. Space Command can make its permanent home in Colorado, the local aerospace industry can start building vehicles to support its missions.
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CEO and co-founder Even Rogers cut the ribbon on its new design lab called Gravity Works, where they will design and test its autonomous space defense system.
"Our objective is to build the technologies that are required to make sure that humans can continue to use the space domain for economic purposes and for diplomatic purposes," Rogers said.
Rogers is a military veteran. He spent his Air Force career working on early space defense mechanisms, and he's watched the historically peaceful frontier become increasingly competitive with other countries.
"The pace of the threat and the pace of activity in space is really, really picking up," Rogers said. "It's picking up in a way that put U.S. and allied operations in space at-risk."
Their first orbital vehicle is called "The Jackal."
"It's about the size of a small refrigerator, and then the solar panels extend," Rogers said.
The Jackal is loaded with hardware and software ability to track down and identify foreign adversaries hovering over Earth. It will get its first-run as part of a Space X mission in February 2024.
"To test autonomy," Rogers said, "We'll make sure we built the right thing and make sure we built the space craft correctly."
It will provide protection from a battlefield that - right now - has no boundaries.
United States Rep. Jason Crow, D- District 6, a military veteran himself, was at the grand opening event to tout the advancements. He said The Jackal could also be used as a training tool for U.S. Space Force personnel.
