Victus Nox, which is Latin for ‘conquer the night’, is a contract that the Space Force has given to Firefly Aerospace and Millennium Space. Under the contract Millennium Space will be given a few months to produce a spacecraft and Firefly Aerospace will be given a 24 hour notice to be ready for launch. This effort is to develop the United States’ responsive space capabilities that would allow for rapid replacement or augmentation of existing space architectures as needed.

This type capability does appear to be crucial given that adversaries of the United States are actively developing and demonstrating capabilities to disable or destroy space assets. In a time of conflict it could very easily be necessary to quickly replace assets that have been compromised in order to keep the Unites States safe.

One thing that has traditionally not been compatible is moving fast and strict regulations. However, when developing a critical capability like this cybersecurity cannot be overlooked. Unfortunately with a quick moving organization cybersecurity practices cannot be handled a la carte as they typically are with different space programs. An organization that is moving quickly will have to utilize existing technologies and processes in order to do things quickly. So unless the cybersecurity practices are ingrained in the whole organization it would be very easy to overlook them in a program that is trying to do things faster than ever before.

Erwin, S. (2022, October 10). Launch on demand: If satellites are shot down, will Space Force be ready to restock? Retrieved from SpaceNews: https://spacenews.com/launch-on-demand-if-satellites-are-shot-down-will-space-force-be-ready-to-restock/