Commercial satellite operators that cannot get a security clearance also cannot be told what the military needs them to build. A new Space Systems Command program aims to break that loop.
Col. Tim Trimailo, director of the command’s Commercial Space Office, unveiled the Access to the Classified Ecosystem for Space program on October 22 at Space Industry Days in El Segundo, California.
The problem is familiar to anyone selling mature spaceflight hardware into defense. Clearance reviews take months. Until they clear, vendors cannot be briefed on orbital threats or on classified requirements, so they design against guesses. ACES front-loads the access requirements so they are identified at contract initiation instead of after a proposal is written.
Built on a DARPA experiment
The framework extends DARPA’s BRIDGES initiative, which connected 19 space companies to classified work before wrapping up in 2025. To scale that approach, the commercial office is working with SpaceWERX and the Defense Innovation Unit and is using other transaction agreements to move firms through vetting.
Col. Aaron Stevenson, the office’s deputy director, said the work depends on agencies aligning rather than individual vendors pushing.
ACES is not an open door. A company must first have an active government sponsor with a validated operational need before the command will help chart a contracting path.
The prize is access to the roughly $15.6B the command spends on acquisition each year, and a wider pool of suppliers for space combat capabilities.
