COLORADO SPRINGS — SpaceWERX, the U.S. Space Force’s technology innovation arm, is partnering with Aerospace to establish a “Technology Readiness Level” bootcamp lab in El Segundo, California. It’s an effort to help nurture promising technologies through the proverbial “valley of death” between initial funding and product maturity.
“We have 100,000 square feet of lab space,” said Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Commercial Space Futures Office, an aerospace organization created to help startups navigate the challenges of working with the military. Director Debra Emmons said.
guidance and guidance
TRL Bootcamp is designed to guide companies through a structured framework to assess technology maturity, Emmons said. She explained that startups will receive valuable guidance and mentorship to increase their capabilities to TRL scale, making them more attractive to potential investors and government partners.
“We want to open the door, so to speak, to a lot of new entrants and new founders and have them bring their capabilities to our lab,” said Tom, principal director of the Commercial Space Futures Office. said one Brian Bourne. “This is a capital investment they don’t have to make.”
The boot camp, which is expected to last four to six months, will also give Space Force program officials a valuable opportunity to directly assess startups’ capabilities and gain confidence in what startups say they can do. Mr. Bourne said.
Aerospace is a federally funded, nonprofit corporation focused on research and development.
The first TRL bootcamp will likely focus on techniques for maneuvering in space, such as rendezvous and close-in operations, Bourne said. The first startups chosen will be from the group he collaborates with SpaceWERX in his Orbital Prime program, which focuses on space services, assembly and manufacturing. This includes a wide range of technologies, from robotics and advanced sensors to debris capture devices.
For the Space Force, developing talented recruits in key technical areas can have significant benefits, Vaughn said.
Programs expected to grow
Going forward, the aerospace industry expects to expand the scope of TRL programs across a variety of space-related sectors, including commercial PNT (positioning, navigation, and timing), space-based environmental monitoring, and space domain awareness. All of these priorities have already been identified by SpaceWERX and Space Force Commercial Space. office.
Aerospace CEO Steve Isakowitz said the commercial space industry continues to grow and the Space Force is looking to better understand what companies can actually offer. .
“Companies entering this space are now more focused than ever on finding ways to work with governments,” he said. “We launched Commercial Space Future Office specifically because there is a lot of demand and a lot of our customers are doing things in commercial space.”
