U.S. Space Force expands Geost satellite sensor deal to $196M

The U.S. Space Force expanded a contract with Geost LLC on May 13, 2026, by nearly $90 million, pushing the total value of the Oculus Host program to $196 million and extending its completion date to May 2033, a significant commitment that reflects how central space domain awareness in geosynchronous orbit has become to American national security planning.

The modification, managed by Space Systems Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base, obligated $61 million in fiscal 2026 research and development funds at the time of award. The work is performed at Geost’s facility in Tucson, Arizona, though the corporate story behind that address has grown considerably more complex since the contract was first awarded in 2021.

Geost LLC was founded in Tucson in 2004 by Anthony Gleckler, a University of Arizona optics PhD, and spent its first decade and a half quietly producing electro-optical and infrared sensor systems for U.S. defense and intelligence satellites. In 2021, private equity firm ATL Partners acquired a majority stake and folded the company into a larger national security sensor platform it called LightRidge Solutions. Then in 2025, Rocket Lab — the New Zealand-American launch and space systems company that has been expanding aggressively into satellite manufacturing and national security space — acquired Geost from ATL and integrated it into its growing portfolio as Rocket Lab Optical Systems.

The Oculus Host contract now sits within Rocket Lab’s national security space business, and that context matters because on May 21, 2026, just eight days after this contract modification was signed, Rocket Lab announced a separate $90 million Space Force contract to design, manufacture, and operate two geostationary satellites hosting the Heimdall space domain awareness payload, which is the evolved operational successor to the sensor work Geost developed under the Oculus Host program.

To understand why the Space Force has invested nearly $200 million in Geost’s sensor technology and is now paying Rocket Lab another $90 million to put those sensors into orbit, it helps to understand the problem these systems are solving. Geosynchronous orbit sits approximately 35,786 kilometers above the equator, an altitude at which a satellite’s orbital period matches Earth’s rotation and the spacecraft appears to hover over a fixed point on the ground. It is where the United States parks its most strategically critical satellite assets, including missile warning satellites, protected military communications satellites, and intelligence collection systems. It is also where Russia and China have been operating satellites that maneuver near American spacecraft, conduct proximity operations, and in some cases appear designed to inspect, jam, or threaten American assets. Tracking what is happening in that belt requires persistent optical surveillance from sensors positioned to see the environment clearly, which means space-based sensors in GEO itself or at nearby vantage points are far more effective than ground-based telescopes looking up through the atmosphere at extreme distances.

The Oculus Host program was designed around exactly that logic. Geost developed small, low-cost electro-optical sensors designed to be hosted on existing satellites in geosynchronous orbit as secondary payloads, using whatever space and power a host satellite owner was willing to share, rather than requiring expensive dedicated spacecraft.

The concept, which SpaceNews reported Space Systems Command described as demonstrating “how a commercial capability can provide flexible and adaptable space domain awareness,” allows the Space Force to place sensing capability in GEO on a timeline and budget far below what a dedicated government satellite program would require. The Heimdall payload that Rocket Lab is now building into two dedicated GEO satellites represents the next step in that evolution, transitioning from hosted prototype demonstrations to operational space vehicles purpose-built around the sensor.

The scale of investment in this capability reflects a strategic judgment that the United States cannot afford to be blind in geosynchronous orbit. Space Force Chief of Space Operations General Chance Saltzman has repeatedly warned publicly that space is “no longer a benign environment” and that adversary capabilities to threaten American satellites have grown substantially. Russia demonstrated the ability to destroy a satellite in low Earth orbit with a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile in November 2021, generating a debris cloud that endangered the International Space Station. China has been operating satellites with robotic arms capable of grappling other spacecraft and has conducted rendezvous and proximity operations near American assets in GEO. Understanding what is moving in that belt, and detecting threatening maneuvers early enough to respond, is a prerequisite for defending American space capabilities that underpin GPS navigation, military communications, and missile warning systems the entire joint force depends on.

The Oculus Host contract covers the payload side of the equation: developing, testing, and delivering the optical sensors and associated ground support infrastructure. Rocket Lab’s separate $90 million satellite contract covers the spacecraft side: building the two GEO vehicles that will carry Heimdall payloads into orbit and operating them for up to five years after commissioning. Together, the two contracts represent a vertically integrated approach to space domain awareness in GEO, with Rocket Lab now holding responsibility for both the sensor and the satellite that carries it.