Space Domain Awareness: Protecting U.S. Assets and Partnerships

Android aims to enhance space domain awareness and protect U.S. assets amid increasing global competition in space.

### Advancing Space Domain Awareness Through Strategic Partnerships
* 🚀 "It's never been more important to **protect that space domain**," as space becomes increasingly contested with numerous assets being launched.
* 🌌 The partnership with Impulse focuses on their **innovative propulsion technology**, enabling access to **higher orbits like Geo and MEO**, which are critical for **U.S. national security**.
* 🛰 Impulse's orbit transfer vehicle technology allows for the movement of small satellites between orbits at a **cost-effective price**, enhancing mission capabilities in **high-value areas**.
* 🌍 The urgency of protecting space is underscored by the prediction that **adversaries will launch more systems in the next decade than in the previous 70 years combined**.
* 💡 To scale operations, Agile aims to transition from **high-cost, low-volume systems** to **low-cost, high-volume systems** by emphasizing **software and autonomy** in manufacturing.
* 🤝 Agile's strategy involves forming partnerships with various startups, likening it to assembling a "**team of super friends**" to address complex government missions with innovative solutions.
* 🌟 The vibrant space industry in Southern California is characterized by **high talent density and collaboration among companies**, reinforcing the idea that "**there's only one team, and that's Team America**."

What impact do you want to make in space? I know you got a new deal to announce. Yeah. Yeah, well, and Caroline, thank you so much for having me. It's so exciting to be here at Rocket Lab, and you can just kind of feel the energy, not just at Android, but in the whole space ecosystem writ large. So, I mean, for us, our focus in space is really around space domain awareness and ultimately ensuring that space gets more contested and congested with so many assets going up there that we can defend and protect US assets in space. And, you know, the space domain is so critical to everything, not just Android does, but the US government does, right from things like GPS positioning, how our soldiers know where they are to communications. It's never been more important to protect that space domain. In order for Android to do what it can, it needs to do on the ground and to

support our U.S. warfighters and allies. So the case study through the news that is out just in the last hour is a deal with impulse. What are the specifics of that? And based on what you've just explained to us, what does a deal like that allow? How does a deal like that allow you to do it? Yeah, I mean, we're so thrilled to be working with Impulse, but Tom Mueller and his team out there and the innovations that they're bringing to the space domain. What we're what we got really excited about with impulse is their propulsion technology and ability to access higher orbits, Geo and MEO orbits. And if people just tuning in right now, the basics of their technology, we're talking about small SATs, essentially, but they can move them at those different orbits. They can move them for long durations. They're building what's called an orbit transfer vehicle so they can move from one orbit to another orbit at a price

point and a resiliency that wasn't available before. And the reason that's so important is because the US's most critical systems are located in those higher orbits, and those orbits are extraordinarily expensive to reach. And so, with our partnership with Impulse, we'll be able to put assets in those orbits to do the kinds of missions that we've been talking about. And when it comes to Angel, we are a mission systems provider, right? We provide end-to-end systems that answer a DOD mission, whether that's observing things in space or doing other things. And so, we take, we are really, really excited to work with partners like Impulse to bring together their systems and ultimately missionize them for a DOD use case. You articulated the threat there, the idea that these assets need protecting, overseeing. How quickly are we seeing other countries doing what Andrew is doing, how quickly we understanding that their assets are being protected or indeed that they're going to be able to target

us? Yeah, I mean, we've heard the US government say openly space is now becoming a warfighting domain, just like every other domain. Protecting space is critically important to state. I like to say is over the next ten years, our adversaries will launch more systems into space than the last 70 years combined. Right. And so whether that's malicious or not, there is just so much going on up there that we need to have eyes and ears on everything that's going on and ensuring that our ability to conduct operations remains undeterred and the pivot to move into space for you. What's that mean? More talent, more investment? What does Agile need to do to get to the size and scale you want to be at? Yeah, look, I mean, if you think about what we've done in every domain, right? So if you think about the air domain with our aircraft are loyal wingman to the underwater domain with the submarine

that's about the size of a school bus. There's one throughline that connects all of it, which is that fundamentally what Enderle does is we go from traditional systems which are high cost, low volume, and we invert that to low cost, high volume systems. Right? And the way to do that is to there are two things. One is a focus on software and autonomy. If you want to be high volume, you've got to get away from one operator commanding one system to one operator being able to control many systems, and two is a focus on manufacturing and be able to manufacture at scale. And fundamentally, we see that same need in space. If you think about the challenges that we were just talking about, we need to move to more autonomous systems, more high volume systems that are able to do these kinds of missions as space gets more and more contested throughout the year, we've covered and drill trace. Stephen's the executive chairman is come on the show.

Palmer Luckey has come on the show, one of the co-founders. And it's been in that context that portfolio of products but also I. I want to come back to space. I think it's probably a smaller or newer area of the business. Is that fair? That's definitely. And so let's look forward. How are you growing it? You know, Caroline, So it's about talent, but from a product perspective, will you offer many things? Do you feel that it's an area of growth grow we see as an area of tremendous growth for Andrew And it's really the demand signal that we're seeing from our customers. And a big part of that actually is the partnership's the analogy I use is we want to bring a team of super friends to this market. All these companies in this area, many startups that you're going to talk to today, where we're really special is our ability to understand the government mission and put together a solution.

And with the government, the demand signal we're seeing loud and clear. Catherine Boyle talked about it earlier, is wanting to work with many startups, each of which provide a unique capability. But they need to be put together to solve one of those problems. So if you go back to the analogy of the super friends. Every super friend does a unique thing. They have a superpower, but you put them all together and they're unstoppable. And that's what I think Android wants to do. We want to bring together a team of companies to go and provide optionality to the government to say, you don't just have to answer these missions in a traditional way. We can bring a nontraditional team to answer these missions at a higher quality, a lower price point, all of those things. What's it about Southern California and the space industry? It's crazy here. I mean, it's just so exciting. You walk into Rocket Lab and you walk past mission control and I mean, just

the talent density here. That is amazing. And I think that, again, we're all partners in this. When it comes to defense, there's only one team, and that's Team America. And so, it's really exciting to be able to work with all of these companies here. And you kind of run into the same folks over and over again. So, we're super thrilled about that.

Anduril's Subramanian: Protecting Space Is Critical

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Bloomberg Technology

Android's focus in space is on domain awareness and protecting US assets as the space environment becomes more congested.

The company's efforts are crucial for GPS positioning, communications, and supporting US warfighters and allies.

Android's new deal with Impulse is centered on their propulsion technology, allowing access to higher orbits and long-duration movement of small satellites, which is essential for orbit transfer.

The Importance of Higher Orbits in Space Operations

Higher orbits are crucial for the US's critical systems and are expensive to reach.

The partnership with Impulse aims to put assets in these orbits for DOD missions.

The increasing activity in space, driven by adversaries launching more systems, highlights the need for protection and oversight in this domain.

Enderle's Approach to High-Volume Systems

Enderle focuses on inverting traditional systems from high cost, low volume to low cost, high volume through software, autonomy, and scalable manufacturing.

The company sees a growing need for autonomous, high-volume systems in space, driven by increasing competition and customer demand.

Enderle aims to grow its presence in the space sector by forming partnerships and understanding government missions to provide effective solutions.

Collaborating Startups for Government Solutions

The government is seeking to work with startups, each offering unique capabilities, to solve common problems.

Android aims to bring together a team of companies to provide nontraditional solutions for government missions, offering higher quality and lower costs.

Southern California's space industry is thriving, with a dense talent pool and exciting partnerships among companies, all working towards a common goal in defense.