Spacelift Range System (SPACE)

Spacelift Range System (SPACE), also known as the Launch and Test Range System (LTRS), supports public safety and assured access to space. System Delta 80 develops and executes its modernization for U.S. Space Force Guardians. This program element is funded through the Space Force Research, Development, Test and Evaluation appropriation under Budget Activity 7, Operational Systems Development, which supports upgrades to fielded systems. The Eastern Range at Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and the Western Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, are designated Major Range and Test Facility Bases.

LTRS supplies tracking, telemetry, communications, flight safety, and related capabilities for national security, civil, and commercial launches. It also supports intercontinental and sea-launched ballistic missile and missile-defense evaluations, plus aeronautical and guided-weapon tests. Its 12 subsystems work together: telemetry, radar, and optics furnish tracking data used by Range Safety, Command Destruct, and Positive Control to protect the public from an errant rocket. Weather and Surveillance inform launch-safety decisions, while Communications, Data Handling, Timing and Sequencing, and Planning and Scheduling move critical information and make assets available for operations.

The acquisition strategy combines incremental system modernization with digital transformation while both ranges remain operational and national launch cadence accelerates. Beginning in fiscal year 2025, LTRS rebalanced work previously concentrated in Procurement into a mix of Procurement and RDT&E funding; planned Procurement requirements were not abandoned, but a substantial set of range-instrumentation and service requirements moved into a software acquisition effort. Research funding supports engineering studies, prototype experimentation, developmental testing, cloud strategies, and technology insertion. These activities advance the Spaceport of the Future (SOTF) vision through greater automation, cyber resilience, launch capacity, and responsiveness to range customers.

Delta-V is the software and information-technology infrastructure modernization portfolio for both ranges and a continuing modification to the LTRS program baseline. It entered the Software Acquisition Pathway execution phase in July 2024. Its two principal functions are modernizing existing software and infrastructure and operating a software factory to build or buy, maintain, and sustain spaceport and test-range applications. Prior development established cloud infrastructure, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), development and test environments, a Zero Trust pilot, agile prototypes, and DevSecOps practices; fiscal year 2026 work also included spaceport data infrastructure, situational-awareness tools, launch-planning dashboards, and an initial cloud-hosted legacy range-safety capability.

In fiscal year 2027, Delta-V continues virtualizing legacy hardware, developing an accessible common data layer, expanding situational awareness, and maturing its CI/CD and DevSecOps processes. Planned deliveries include a minimum viable capability for planning launch operations with Launch Service Providers and minimum viable products for off-premises Impact Level 6 cloud capability and Western Range hybrid-cloud offerings. The effort may also use studies, experimentation, prototypes, and government, commercial, or international partnerships to respond rapidly to contested-domain threats. Increased support for data architecture and optimization drives its requested-year funding growth.

LTRS Range Technology Integration provides systems engineering and integration, advisory assistance, configuration management, requirements analysis, and technical support across the 12-subsystem operational baseline. In fiscal year 2027, it will help sustain operations while integrating sensor-edge and range-system data through a hybrid-cloud environment with AI-enabled handling and secure transmission. Its work includes moving commercial launch customers to AFSS systems and government customers away from the FTS system toward AFSS configuration. Prototypes, predictive modeling, equipment automation, and faster data delivery aim to improve real-time decisions, rapid range reconfiguration, and simultaneous launch operations in contested space and cyber environments.

Enterprise Systems Engineering and Integration to Support Government-Controlled Baseline managed system and subsystem requirements, assessed changes to the fielded baseline, and synchronized separate modernization efforts with sustainment. As "government as the integrator," it also developed investment recommendations for continued Eastern and Western Range operations. This activity was funded in fiscal year 2025 but has no fiscal year 2027 planned funding. The broader acquisition approach still uses contracted integration services and federally funded research and development center analysis to bring promising technology into the technical baseline and assess mission and cybersecurity needs.

Fiscal year 2027 funding is concentrated in Delta-V and Range Technology Integration, with additional product-development and management support, including research-center services. Together, these efforts are intended to shift from stand-alone range systems toward integrated spaceports without interrupting launch and test commitments. The program sits within the Space Access mission area alongside national security launch, responsive-space, and related launch programs. Its schedule carries Delta-V and Range Technology Integration activities through fiscal year 2031.