February 18, 2026 at 8:28 PM
DIU wants commercially developed imagery satellites for on-orbit spying
Under the new GHOST-R effort, the Defense Innovation Unit hopes to have a high-resolution bird operating on orbit within 24 months.
Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) neighborhood watch satellite (Air Force Space Command archive) WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) wants to buy commercially produced satellites to take close-ups of other spacecraft in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), according to a new solicitation. The goal of the new Geosynchronous High-Resolution Optical Space-Based Tactical Reconnaissance (GHOST-R) program is to rapidly put on orbit the capability keep near real-time tabs on the whereabouts of both “adversary and friendly” satellites, as well as take good enough pictures to be able to discern their purposes, explains the call for industry proposals published on Monday by the Pentagon’s in-house accelerator. And DIU would like to do so at a lower price point than the Space Force’s current space domain awareness programs for GEO, some 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) in altitude.
Those current programs are the venerable Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) neighborhood watch constellation and its planned successor known as RG-XX. The proposed new satellites for DIU “must reduce costs compared to existing and planned programs of record while achieving high-resolution image collection, allowing for increased collection frequency and detailed characterization of resident space objects (RSOs) in GEO. The successful deployment of these capabilities will significantly improve GEO RSO Characterization, Battle Damage Assessment