Galaxy

The Galaxy Cohort recently embarked on their inaugural OCONUS trip to Australia, marking a historic first for the group! Arriving in Sydney, they journeyed to Canberra before concluding their adventure in Adelaide. During their visit, the Galaxy team engaged with various military, civil, and commercial organizations, emphasizing the strategic importance of partnerships with our Australian allies. Key meetings included HEO Robotics, Australia Space Command, the Joint Capabilities Operations Centre, the Australian Space Agency, the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, the 1 Space Surveillance Unit, and Southern Launch. These interactions highlighted Australia’s innovative and rapidly expanding space industry and reinforced the value of collaboration. Additionally, the Cohort had the opportunity to broaden their cultural horizons with a visit to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Special thanks to the CSO, Gen Chance Saltzman, for the recommendation; the team was deeply humbled by this experience. We extend our gratitude to all our Australian partners for making this trip a resounding success. Your time and insights were invaluable. Stay tuned for our next update as the Galaxy team prepares for their journey to Japan! #USSF #SSC #Galaxy #CSO #Australia #SpaceIndustry #HEORobotics #JCO #AustraliaSpaceCommand #AustralianSpaceAgency #SmartSat #SouthernLaunch #1SSU

Week 3 for Galaxy XII is all wrapped up! The Cohort met with a variety of commercial companies in Silicon Valley, all offering innovative solutions to accelerate and deliver advanced space technology. The Cohort met with Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and learned how they are bridging the gap between DoD and industry to advance and adopt technology for end users. Visiting DIU helped set the stage for the rest of the week. Throughout the week, the team engaged with several satellite companies from Planet, Muon Space, Astranis Space Technologies, and Capella Space. Insights and discussions highlighted how these companies are using rapid development and data availability to enable quicker, more informed decision-making. The Cohort also met with Astra, LeoLabs, Lyten, and WindBorne Systems. From small launch, space debris tracking, advanced materials, and weather balloons the team learned about how the Space Force can leverage cost effective, sustainable, and agile commercial technology to accelerate our missions. Thank you to all of those who hosted Galaxy XII in Week 3. Stay tuned for Week 4 highlights!

Momentum from Week 1 continued into Week 2 for Galaxy XII! The team spent time in the LA area learning from our SSC leaders and industry partners. Galaxy XII gained deeper insight into several SSC Program Executive Offices and programs. They learned about future strategic plans and technologies our command is investing in to ensure we stay at the forefront of space-based capabilities. This week also marked the Cohort’s first engagements with leading industry partners. The Cohort gained valuable takeaways from host companies, including Applied Minds, NASA JPL, Relativity Space, and SpaceX. The team learned about industry best practices, creative design, and space exploration—topics directly applicable to the advancement of the Space Force. Stay tuned as Galaxy XII continues their travel and learning throughout the program!

The journey begins for Galaxy XII! A warm welcome and congratulations to the new team: Kristin Burk Bryce Leiter, PMP Jacob M. Greg Skage Sabrina Taylor Leigha Woelffer They come from diverse professional and educational backgrounds, with career experience spanning from range operations, launch, project engineering, test, and acquisition. Their education ranges from environmental science, business administration, management, and engineering. Galaxy XII is off to a strong start, with a Week 1 that was filled with plenty of learning, collaboration, and team building. The team visited SpaceDEN, the Integrated, Immersive, Intelligent Environment (I3E) lab, and Kobayashi Maru in El Segundo to explore how innovative technologies and agile software can improve the acquisition process and enhance user capabilities. To wrap up the week, they volunteered by participating in a beach cleanup and ended the day with a team bonding brunch! We look forward to keeping up with Galaxy XII and all that’s to come!

🚨 Galaxy Member Spotlight - 1st Lt Nicholas Sexton 🚨 Lt. Sexton was integral in the discovery and delivery of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to the warfighter. During his LOE and under the guidance of Col Stephan Cummings, Lt. Sexton delivered the first-ever USSOCOM prompt engineering training curriculum, intending to increase the proficiency of operators using AI/ML tools. This curriculum will equip warfighters with the technical skills to properly tool large language models, increasing the accuracy of the model responses by up to 16%. Additionally, Lt. Sexton fielded computer vision capabilities, enabling rapid analysis of information. This capability enables operators to quickly identify objects of interest within a given image, reducing the time spent processing imagery and other forms of media. Lt. Sexton, a former psychology major, embraced the challenge presented to him through the Galaxy program and learned how to effectively utilize AI/ML tools such as LLMs, OCR plug-ins, and computer vision software. The Galaxy program allowed Lt. Sexton to pursue development in a field he otherwise would not have been exposed to.

🚀 Happy Friday everyone! 🚀 The Galaxy XI cohort recently completed our fifth book, Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy by Monica Duffy Toft and Sidita Kushi. During the course of this program, we have had first-hand accounts by multiple military units, organizations, and allies all centering on one theme… “How can we better work together?” In order to answer that question, we need to understand our past and bring about those lessons learned to help prepare us for tomorrow’s fight. Monica Duffy Toft and Sidita Kushi do a fantastic job statistically highlighting pivotal policies, strategies, and interventions throughout history that have shaped America to what it is today and how we can better equip ourselves for the future. One recommendation from the book is to use those historical lessons to help strengthen alliances and apply fresh solutions and carve out a different path to promote U.S. and international security (Toft, Kushi, Pg.267). So, I leave you with this, “How can we better work together?” There is no simple answer. We can continue to be open to new ideas, take chances, identify and improve on our past mistakes, encourage innovation, and develop interoperability but none of those really work without focusing on all aspects of the Diplomacy, Informational, Military, and Economic (DIME) instruments of national power and finding new, creative ways to make connections. Citation: Toft, Monica Duffy , and Sidita Kushi. Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of Us Foreign Policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2023

Galaxy Member Spotlight - 1st Lt Quincy Peene As a key member of the Galaxy cohort, 1st Lt Quincy Peene has been instrumental in advancing the $400M Wide Field of View (WFOV) satellite and program. Tasked with creating a Concept of Operations and an Operations Manual for downstream data users, Lt Peene has also contributed to significant improvements in data quality and latency, directly benefiting Space Warfighters in the Indo-Pacific region. Under the mentorship of Col Jonathan Seal and Mr. Erik Bowman, Lt Peene has helped bridge the gap between the operational and acquisitions communities. Despite facing challenging engineering hurdles, Lt Peene and his team are working to optimize data analysis methods, and expand data sharing capabilities for downstream users. Throughout his time working with the WFOV program, Lt Peene has engaged with over 10 military and intelligence organizations to deepen his understanding of capability gaps to better prepare the U.S. Space Force for future conflicts.

❕Galaxy XI Member Spotlight - Shannon Guy Under the guidance of F. Schnell and Barb Golf from the SDA and Combat Power Directorate at Space Systems Command, Lt Guy has been instrumental in the SDA Tools, Applications, and Processing (TAP) Lab's mission to integrate commercial SDA capabilities into an automated, unclassified battle management system and accelerate delivery to the National Space Defense Center and SpOC operational units. Collaborating with over 50 companies, academia, and government partners the Apollo Accelerator, Lt Guy and her team have tackled warfighter-identified capability gaps in the direct ascent ASAT kill chain. During her tenure in Galaxy, Lt Guy has engaged with USSPACECOM and SpOC operators, conducted demos at the Joint Commercial Operations cell, defined allied code deployment pathways, explored partnership opportunities with the UK and AUS, and aligned R&D funding with multiple mission partners. This Vice Chief of Space Operations initiative is a key effort to leverage commercial space innovation, reduce tech debt ahead of 2026, and strengthen the joint and allied protect and defend mission. SDA TAP Lab

Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China by Hal Brands and Michael Beckley. Recommended by Galaxy IX & X Cohorts, this book is a stimulating and urgent analysis of the Sino-American contest fueled by incompatible geopolitical interests and a glaring ideological dispute on if Asian-centric authoritarianism or western democracy will dominate the 21st century. Foreign policy experts, Hal Brands and Michael Beckley draw parallels to World War I and the Cold War: when a country is peaking in their power, aggressive action is soon to follow, e.g., the Danger Zone. Navigating this volatile time requires both a near and long term strategy. Near term:  - Prioritize ruthlessly - Strategic purpose + tactical agility  - Take calculated risks - Build a bridge to a more manageable stage of rivalry Long term:  Aligning near term wins with long term strategic successes, to include helping strategic allies defend against cyberattacks and preserving strategic partners as a barrier to Chinese expansion. This book offers valuable insights into the motivations of China’s authoritarianism and illuminates the importance of building partnerships across Asia, the Pacific region, and Africa, as well as conducting irregular warfare as directed by the National Defense Strategy (Washington: DOD, 27 Oct 22), 6-15.

Happy Friday! Over the next few months we’re going to begin highlighting all the members of Cohort XI! We wanted to bring attention to the work they’ve been putting into their LOEs. This week is starting off with Lt Mackenzie Robertson! Lt Robertson was tasked with exploring a cloud data monitoring and ingestion system under the leadership of Mr. Jordan Riedel (SSC/SZY) and Lt Col Donald Johnson (SSC/SZYO). She’s in the process of figuring out if leveraging the Air Force’s Big Data Platform (BDP), ELICSAR—Enterprise Logging Ingest & Cyber Situational Awareness Refinery, is the correct path forward for Defensive Cyber Operations-Space (DCO-S) and if it meets the needs of space cyber operators. During her time in Galaxy, Lt Robertson has had the opportunity to speak with many organizations that leverage BDP and learn best practices. Utilizing BDP would allow for all cyber information to be in one place and enable operators to leverage capabilities that have already proven reliable within the DoD. Looking forward to see what the rest of the cohort has been working on!