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USSF To Expand Space Domain Awareness Lab to Texas

The new experimentation hub will invite 180 technology teams to rapidly research and prototype to create operational capabilities.

The USSF Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing Lab will expand with a new experimentation hub in Austin, Texas. Credit: Siarhei-stock.adobe.com

As part of the Texas Space Commission’s (TSC’s) $9.27 million award to the University of Texas at Austin, the TSC and the U.S. Space Force (USSF) will expand the USSF Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing (SDA TAP) Lab by establishing an experimentation hub in Austin, according to a Space Systems Command press release.

The SDA TAP Lab, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, currently turns academic and commercial research into operational capabilities, helps target adversary kill chains and integrates emerging technologies, the release states. The lab operationalizes the service’s resilience-by-design framework, taking proactive measures to ensure mission readiness and quick delivery of space capabilities to the joint force.

According to the release, this new investment will help accelerate the transition of academic research into operational capabilities for national defense by uniting industry, academia and national labs professionals with USSF mission area experts to conduct proof-of-concept research on complex security challenges.

“We are here to enable space superiority missions by avoiding operational surprise and denying the first mover advantage," said USSF Lt. Col. Collin Greiser, system program manager for Advanced Space Battle Management, who oversees the SDA TAP Lab. "This partnership provides a path to solve real problems, collaborate across industry and government, provide expert mentorship, interact with operators and deliver operational capability to space battle managers.”

The grant will be distributed over two years and will support a full lab buildout, operator training and a secure infrastructure for interoperable SDA innovation, according to the release. Six cohort cycles, involving 180 technology teams, will rapidly prototype and refine solutions at the lab.

“This award directly supports implementation of the U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Space Strategy, which was released in April 2024,” said Merrick Garb, branch chief for Commercial, Civil and Interagency Partnerships, Global Partnerships Division, Headquarters USSF. “With the expansion of the SDA TAP Lab to Austin, our service will partner with the vibrant commercial space industries in Texas, across the United States and with companies from our allied and partner nations to solve our most challenging problems. I look forward to seeing how the next six cohort classes innovate and collaborate.”

According to the release, the project will launch late this spring, and the lab is expected to be fully operational as early as December.

"The Texas Space Commission is proud to facilitate this crucial partnership between a top-tier Texas university and the U.S. Space Force," said Norman Garza, TSC executive director. "This grant not only anchors a vital national security mission in our state but also demonstrates Texas' commitment to leading the nation in space innovation, economic development and workforce creation for the 21st century."