The DoD upped its ceiling for national security space launches (NSSL) by $11.4B on Friday, more than tripling the pool of NSSL launch contracts from $5.6B to $17B.
The companies standing to benefit are the seven launcher providers already selected under the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 program:
- Blue Origin
- Impulse Space
- Relativity Space
- Rocket Lab
- SpaceX
- Stoke Space
- United Launch Alliance
Send it: The contract increase is the latest example of the US government throwing resources behind its launch program to counter Russian and Chinese advances in space.
- In April, the DoD proposed a $71.1B budget for the Space Force in 2027—124% higher than its 2026 total.
- In May, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee, defending the proposal to invest $2.2B to boost US launch infrastructure.
- On Thursday, Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess—President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the next Chief of Space Operations—called increasing the US launch tempo his “most pressing issue.”
With a little help: The contract increase also highlights just how much the US government has become dependent upon the commercial space sector. Across the DoD’s space portfolio—from Golden Dome to PWSA— space companies have been tapped to play an increasingly integral role in building up the country’s defensive posture in space.
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Beyond Reach Labs, a startup building hardware to help satellite operators deploy large solar arrays, announced a $10M seed round today to meet an expected massive wave of incoming demand.
Interlagos led the round, which included additional participation from TerraForge Capital, Off-Piste Capital, Y Combinator, and Augur VC.
Al dente: Beyond Reach was founded in 2023 to commercialize a technology that has its roots in a NASA grant intended to support large scale space structures. The idea took off, however, when Beyond Reach joined Y Combinator’s Winter 2026 cohort and narrowed its focus—at least in the short term—on solar arrays.
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