Space News by Sandra Erwin — June 25, 2018
What is the Space Rapid Capabilities Office supposed to build? That is the central question, said Randy Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.A new office Congress created to speed up the procurement of next-generation military space systems has a $316 million budget, a headquarters at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, and soon will have a civilian leader that will report to Air Force Space Command chief Gen. John Raymond.
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office, known as Space RCO, is still missing a key element that it will need to be successful: A clearly defined goal and procurement objective.
“What are they supposed to build?†That is the central question, said Randy Walden, director and program executive officer of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.
The Space RCO is being fashioned after Walden’s Air Force RCO — located at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C. — that has been widely praised for rescuing the B-21 stealth bomber program from a bureaucratic death spiral. It is also the office that successfully put the Air Force X-37 experimental robotic space plane on orbit, racking up more than 2,000 flight hours over two years. The X-37 operates out of Cape Canaveral from a former NASA space shuttle facility.
The fifth X-37 mission went into orbit last September and was its first aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Walden recalled seeing the first stage booster return and touch down at Cape Canaveral. “It’s very impressive technology.â€
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