With launches slated to grow a hundredfold, Space Force seeks more sites, money, people and AI

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink 6-104 mission lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., on Feb. 21, 2026. (U.S. Space Force photo by Robert Mason)

By Thomas Novelly • May 08, 2026

The guardians manning screens in the mission-ops center here oversaw the launch of five types of rockets in April, a new record that involved NASA’s Artemis II, the first reused New Glenn booster, and a Falcon 9 lofting the final GPS III satellite. But tomorrow’s Space Force may have no time to mark even epochal missions. Within a decade, service leaders say, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will be launching hundreds of rockets a year.

To facilitate the Pentagon’s fast-growing demand for orbital capability, the Space Force is looking for more launch sites, more money, more troops, and more AI.

“In 2025, the Space Force saw a drastic increase in mission requirements across space access, global mission operations, and space control. This trend shows no signs of slowing,” Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force’s top uniformed leader, told House lawmakers last week. “The Space Force we have today is not the Space Force we will need in the future.”