{"id":11030,"date":"2026-05-07T21:08:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/with-launches-slated-to-grow-a-hundredfold-space-force-seeks-more-sites-money-people-and-ai\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T21:08:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:08:33","slug":"with-launches-slated-to-grow-a-hundredfold-space-force-seeks-more-sites-money-people-and-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/with-launches-slated-to-grow-a-hundredfold-space-force-seeks-more-sites-money-people-and-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"With launches slated to grow a hundredfold, Space Force seeks more sites, money, people, and AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida\u2014The guardians manning screens in the mission-ops center here oversaw the launch of five types of rockets in April, a new record that involved NASA\u2019s Artemis II, the first reused New Glenn booster, and a Falcon 9 lofting the final GPS III satellite. But tomorrow’s Space Force may have no time to mark even epochal missions. Within a decade, service leaders say, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will be launching hundreds of rockets a year.<\/p>\n

To facilitate the Pentagon\u2019s fast-growing demand for orbital capability, the Space Force is looking for more launch sites, more money, more troops, and more AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025, the Space Force saw a drastic increase in mission requirements across space access, global mission operations, and space control. This trend shows no signs of slowing,\u201d Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force\u2019s top uniformed leader, told House lawmakers last week. \u201cThe Space Force we have today is not the Space Force we will need in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nestled on a thin stretch of land just miles from nature preserves and cruise-ship ports, the historic Cape Canaveral facility launched 36 rockets in 2021, its first year as a Space Force facility. Last year, it sent 110 into the heavens, while its California counterpart, Vandenberg Space Force Base, launched another 65.<\/p>\n

This year, Space Force leaders intend to launch more than 200 rockets from their two main launch sites. And by 2036, they project the pair will launch more than 3,000 annually, according to a service document released last month.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s going to take more launchpads.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as other launch locations, that’s something that we’ve looked at quite a bit as well,\u201d said Col. Ryan Hiserote, who leads Space Systems Command\u2019s System Delta 80 and runs the National Security Space Launch program. \u201cIn terms of heavy launch, it’s really just the two bases we have now\u2014with Vandenberg and the Cape\u2014I don’t have a good solution for that one yet. But we’re certainly open to other locations, and the team has been exploring those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiserote said he was initially focusing on sites for smaller vehicles, like Rocket Lab\u2019s work out of NASA\u2019s Wallops Island flight facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Walt Lauderdale, System Delta 80\u2019s system program director for the Falcon product line, said the service might use private sites such as SpaceX\u2019s Starbase in Texas.<\/p>\n

But even as the Space Force looks to spread its launches around, Lauderdale said, it also needs to expand and improve its two main bases and \u201cpivot to invest in ways we never did before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushing policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Space Force\u2019s top brass has been making that pitch as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month at the Space Symposium in Colorado, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman unveiled \u201cObjective Force 2040,\u201d an ambitious vision with a section on expanding the service\u2019s launch capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the space domain becomes increasingly linked both to national security and to economic<\/p>\n

prosperity, the importance of space access grows commensurately,\u201d the document said. \u201cThis is a significant challenge because the Space Force has supported exponential growth in launch cadence over the past few years using the same physical infrastructure first built decades ago. The future operating environment will only exacerbate this strain, with booming government and commercial demand as well as new mission requirements for responsive and scalable space access.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document noted that the service will \u201cexpand and certify state, commercial, and private launch sites to address routine launches, increase surge capacity, and provide geographic diversity,\u201d but also noted some spaceports won\u2019t be fully suitable for some missions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese sites will increase overall launch capacity, but security and mission assurance requirements will limit their suitability for the most sensitive national security launches,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n

And the document adds a warning about overreliance on Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg, which \u201ccreates enduring vulnerability to natural hazards, operational disruption, and degraded performance during periods of peak demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense space expert Todd Harrison agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would make sense to diversify, because right now we are incredibly dependent on just two locations,\u201d said Harrison, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. \u201cOne is at risk of hurricanes, and the other is at risk of wildfires and earthquakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s National Defense Authorization Act directed the Space Force to analyze the long-term suitability of Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg and\u00a0 develop a list of alternative locations. Lawmakers have floated Wallops Island; Pacific Spaceport Complex, Alaska; and Spaceport America in New Mexico, as potential alternative national-security launch sites.<\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s NDAA, lawmakers directed the service to report on the maintenance costs and age of infrastructure at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg, as well as \u201cpotential strategies to mitigate adverse environmental effects.\u201d The deadline was March 31.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Space Force launch officials said in April that their extensive report had not yet been delivered to Congress. A service spokesperson did not respond to a request for an update.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

Increasing the number of launches will require more than money. Top Space Force officers have recently called for doubling the service\u2019s end-strength over the next decade.<\/p>\n

But even that won\u2019t be enough, they say. Guardians will need to lean on AI to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur manpower is going to change,\u201d said Air Force Col. Douglas Oltmer, commander of Cape Canaveral\u2019s 45th Weather Squadron.<\/em> \u201cIt\u2019s going to have to change to be able to flex to that launch cadence, but we will not be able to do the job in the future the way we\u2019re doing it now. We\u2019re going to have to leverage technology, AI tools a lot more than we\u2019re doing now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Objective Force document calls for a service that can \u201coperate at machine speed, leveraging artificial intelligence and autonomous systems while maintaining the primacy of human judgment for critical decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Congress debates the future of the Space Force\u2019s launch sites and service leaders push space-launch goals to new heights, guardians at Cape Canaveral said they don\u2019t feel those additional pressures weighing down on them. Hiserote, of System Delta 80, said he\u2019s working with what he\u2019s got until new resources and manpower come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will mean more missions for us, so we\u2019re working through how to balance that with the resources that we have and look at areas where we can accept more risk that maybe traditionally we haven\u2019t before,\u201d Hiserote said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot that we can do to automate some processes so we can handle a larger manifest with a team that we have.\u201d\n\n<\/svg><\/p>\n<\/div>\n