What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 610001 of PE 0601102SF. This is the budget justification's own description of work that has not happened yet — the one thing no other level of the budget carries.
- Continue to understand the solar terrestrial environment extending from the Sun through Earth's magnetosphere and radiation belts to the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region to improve operational space weather forecasting. - Continue to advance the fundamental understanding of the physical processes that impact the motion and control of both natural and artificial objects moving in the gravity fields associated with the Earth/Moon/Sun system needed to enable future operations beyond geostationary earth orbits (X-GEO) operations. - Continue to conduct research in life sciences such as synthetic biology, biologically produced components, and biological processes to understand and mitigate the impacts of harsh and remote environments on future operations and future assets. - Continue to explore theories, principles, and practical concepts of physical and biological sciences in harsh and remote environments to identify solutions to current and future U.S. Space Force mission needs. - Continue to conduct foundational scientific research to enable greatly enhanced maneuver and power capabilities in the space environment. - Continue to explore novel ideas that may bridge these major efforts and enhance global space operations.
FY 2027 decreased compared to FY 2026 by $1.183 million due to decreased emphasis on Space-focused basic research. This reduction reflects programmatic adjustments to the DAF Science and Technology portfolio for strategic realignment to optimize core research areas and improve resource efficiency. This will result in approximately 5 fewer grants awarded in Space-focused basic research.
FY2026: the year under way
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
- Seek to understand the solar terrestrial environment extending from the Sun through Earth's magnetosphere and radiation belts to the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region to improve operational space weather forecasting. - Advance the fundamental understanding of the physical processes that impact the motion and control of both natural and artificial objects moving in the gravity fields associated with the Earth/Moon/Sun system needed to enable future operations beyond geostationary earth orbits (X-GEO) operations. - Conduct research in life sciences such as synthetic biology, biologically produced components, and biological processes to understand and mitigate the impacts of harsh and remote environments on future operations and future assets. - Explore theories, principles, and practical concepts of physical and biological sciences in harsh and remote environments to identify solutions to current and future U.S. Space Force mission needs. - Conduct foundational scientific research to enable greatly enhanced maneuver and power capabilities in the space environment. - Explore novel ideas that may bridge these major efforts and enhance global space operations.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 19.1 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 21.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 20.0 |
This activity is 96% of project 610001's FY2027 request and 96% of PE 0601102SF's. In the request year the activities under a project sum to it exactly; in the current year they under-cover it in about 9% of cases, so an activity's delta can legitimately exceed its parent's and the two must not be compared row to row.
2 activities in project 610001
Every R-2A line of this project, largest FY2027 request first. Linked where the activity has enough of its own narrative to carry a page; the rest are shown in full on the program-element page.