Rapid launch was only the first act of the Space Force’s responsive-space push. Now the service is buying spacecraft that can hustle around orbit on command.
Two more Mira vehicles will join the roster as Victus Salo 2 and Victus Salo 3, carrying government payloads in low Earth orbit. The $28M contract change brings the program’s total to roughly $62.8M.
The relationship began in 2024 with a $34.8M Small Business Innovation Research Phase 3 pact from Space Systems Command’s Space Safari office and the Defense Innovation Unit, covering Victus Surgo and Victus Salo 1. The Salo line is where the service tests something new: spacecraft that can reposition themselves once in orbit, a step beyond the rapid-launch stunts that defined early TacRS work.
Victus Salo 1 will pair a Mira with a payload from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, with launch expected in 2027. The harder test is Victus Surgo, in which an Impulse Helios kick stage hauls another Mira up to geosynchronous transfer orbit for independent maneuvering.
Impulse Space, founded by former SpaceX engineer Tom Mueller, also sells orbital transfer vehicles commercially. The deepening government relationship signals the Space Force’s appetite for on-orbit agility as adversaries field spacecraft that can sidle up to U.S. assets.
