The U.S. Space Force is planning a competition for commercial maneuverable satellites to support the military’s Maneuverable Geosynchronous (GEO) program. The Maneuverable GEO program reportedly seeks to partner with a group of commercial vendors providing GEO orbit services that the U.S. Space Force will be able to access to enhance military capabilities. Reports state that “the spacecraft should be able to maneuver—either to avoid debris or to move between orbital slots to provide better coverage to users in a given region.” The notice of the competition further describes the effort as follows:
The objective of this effort is to create a contract vehicle that provides the United States military and other partners access to worldwide commercial satellite communication (COMSATCOM) services based on satellites in any form of geosynchronous (GEO) orbit and featuring both readily available and traditionally scarce satellite transmission bands; spacecraft supporting such services while also providing unconventional resilience due to the maneuverability and number of dispersed satellites involved; and other commercial satellite services that may support or benefit from being hosted on such satellites, operating worldwide, regionally, and on orbit. This combination of maneuverability using decentralized, spatially dispersed small and medium satellites increases the resilience of both the service overall and, in the case of COMSATCOM services, the signal for any particular user while employing existing user equipment and gateways.
The competition, planned to begin January 2026, seeks commercial companies with maneuverable GEO orbit technology. The program issued a revised comment period for market research, which ended October 17, 2025. The comment request stated that “[u]pon conclusion of market research efforts, the Government anticipates releasing a formal solicitation for this effort.”
The program may encourage innovation as participating companies will have an opportunity to offer cutting-edge solutions. Further, the competition presents an opportunity for commercial companies to expand the development and reach of their technologies as participants will potentially join the pool of service providers for the U.S. Space Force.
Potential participants should consider intellectual property (IP) implications of joining the competition. For example, innovators may want to consider any impacts on IP rights for the technologies proposed, and whether it is advantageous to file patent applications on their satellite maneuverability GEO technologies prior to entering. Further, entrants may want to evaluate how government contracting may impact their intellectual property rights and associated obligations of contractors for retaining such rights. Finally, companies may want to consider how any licenses (in or out) related to the submitted technology may be affected.
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