Space Force awards first operational CASR contracts to six SDA firms
Anduril · LeoLabs · Slingshot Aerospace · InTrack Radar · EOS Space Systems · NorthStar · U.S. Space Force
The Space Force picked Anduril, LeoLabs and four other firms for its first operational Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve contracts.
updates
- 2026-10-29Aviation Week reports the six initial CASR contracts total just $1.37 million combined, with the Space Force now developing similar commercial-reserve arrangements for satcom and launch.
- 2026-10-23Via Satellite added the program's funding context: a March 2025 wargame with more than a dozen companies and commercial-services budget lines of just $37 million (FY2026) and $24 million (FY2027) against a roughly $71 billion FY2027 request.
what happened
The Space Force's Commercial Space Office awarded first operational contracts under its Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) to six space-domain-awareness companies through the Golden Dome Marketplace: Anduril, InTrack Radar, Slingshot Aerospace and LeoLabs in the US, plus Australia's EOS Space Systems and Canada's NorthStar. Col. Tim Trimailo said the initial contract values are "fairly low," and Lt. Col. Brandon Galindo said these are the companies the Space Force "would really depend upon" if an on-orbit debris or breakup event occurred. CASR uses the General Services Administration's ACCESS contract framework and builds on a first wargame SSC held with more than a dozen commercial space companies in March 2025; the Space Force requested just $37 million for commercial services in fiscal 2026 and about $24 million in fiscal 2027, a small fraction of a roughly $71 billion fiscal 2027 budget request, per Via Satellite. Aviation Week reported Oct. 28 that the six initial CASR awards total just $1.37 million combined, confirming Trimailo's "fairly low" characterization with an exact figure, and that the program, established in 2023, reached this operational stage about a year after the service originally anticipated. Trimailo said the Space Force is "always looking for new entrants, new opportunities, new companies that have proven themselves," and the service is separately developing similar CASR arrangements for satellite communications and launch as additional mission areas.
why it matters
CASR is modeled on the Air Force's Civil Reserve Air Fleet, reserving commercial surge capacity the military can activate in a crisis; this marks the program's move from pilot contracts to steady-state operational ones for space domain awareness, naming six companies, including two allied firms, as the Pentagon's on-call SDA bench. Trimailo said the cohort can still grow, so other SDA providers remain in contention for future rounds; lawmakers have separately criticized how small the Space Force's commercial budget lines remain relative to its overall request. The $1.37 million combined award size underscores how early-stage this surge-capacity bench still is relative to the roughly $71 billion fiscal 2027 Space Force budget, but the planned expansion into satcom and launch CASR arrangements signals the Pentagon intends to extend the same on-call commercial model well beyond space domain awareness.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- Anduril, LeoLabs, Slingshot Aerospace, InTrack Radar, EOS Space Systems, NorthStar, U.S. Space Force
- Category
- contract
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-10-22
- Published
- 2026-10-22 22:20 UTC