According to U.S. Space Force Col. Richard Kniseley, the Commercial Space Office is working to release the first contracts for the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve by the end of the year, Breaking Defense reported Friday.
Speaking at the recent Washington Space Business Roundtable, Kniseley, who heads COMSO, also said his office aims to hold a CASR industry session by August.
The Space Force put forward the idea of a Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve in early 2023. It envisioned commercial space companies voluntarily providing a part of their capabilities to the Department of Defense to address urgent needs during crisis or war.
Kniseley noted that, for the first CASR contracts, the focus would mainly be space domain awareness. He expects the issuance of contracts containing special provisions for vendors that wish to become CASR companies.
“I expect it to be some really good learning, because we’ve never done this before,” the COMSO chief said.
