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By Alice Gibbs
Senior Reporter
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The U.S. Space Force has taken a significant step toward building one of the most ambitious elements of President Donald Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defense system—a fleet of space-based interceptors designed to destroy incoming missiles from orbit.
The service recently announced it had selected Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory as the technical direction agent for its new Space-Based Interceptor (SBI) program, a key component of the Pentagon's effort to develop a layered missile defense architecture capable of countering ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons and other advanced threats.
While much of the public discussion surrounding Golden Dome has focused on radar systems, missile-tracking satellites and ground-based defenses, the new Space Force initiative centers on something the United States has never fielded: interceptor spacecraft designed to engage enemy missiles from orbit.
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Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Space Force via email for comment.
What is Golden Dome?
Golden Dome is envisioned as a nationwide missile defense network combining sensors, interceptors and command-and-control systems across land, sea, air and space.
The concept has often been compared to Israel's Iron Dome, but operates on a far larger scale. Rather than defending against short-range rockets, Golden Dome aims to detect, track and defeat long-range ballistic missiles and emerging hypersonic threats before they can reach the United States.
Space is expected to play a central role in that effort. Satellites can provide a continuous view of missile launches across the globe, offering precious minutes of warning and helping direct defensive systems toward incoming threats.
The United States has relied on such capabilities for decades through the Defense Support Program (DSP), a constellation of missile-warning satellites first launched in 1970. Operating from geosynchronous orbit, DSP satellites use infrared sensors to detect rocket launches and provide early warning of missile activity. The system established the foundation of America's space-based missile warning architecture and remains one of the clearest examples of the military value of space-based surveillance.
But DSP satellites were built to detect missile launches, not destroy them. That is where the Space-Based Interceptor program differs.
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What Are Space-Based Interceptors?
Unlike missile-warning satellites, space-based interceptors would be active weapons.
According to the Space Force, the proposed constellation would consist of interceptors in low-Earth orbit capable of conducting boost-phase, midcourse and glide-phase engagements. In theory, that would allow the system to attack missiles shortly after launch, while they are traveling through space, or during the maneuvering phase used by some hypersonic weapons.
The Space Force has described the concept as a "proliferated" constellation, suggesting a network made up of large numbers of relatively small spacecraft rather than a handful of highly complex satellites. Such an approach could improve resiliency while ensuring coverage across multiple regions of the globe.
What Might The Spacecraft Look Like?
The government has not released detailed designs or public renderings of the interceptors.
Using designs from similar proposals in the past, they are likely to resemble small autonomous satellites equipped with sensors, guidance systems, propulsion units and onboard computing power. Working together as a network, they could receive targeting data from missile-tracking satellites and maneuver into position to intercept incoming threats.
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Echoes of Reagan's 'Star Wars' Program
For many defense analysts, the most obvious historical comparison is President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as "Star Wars."
One of the initiative's most ambitious concepts was Brilliant Pebbles, a proposal for thousands of small autonomous interceptor spacecraft orbiting Earth. Developed during the late 1980s, the concept envisioned spacecraft capable of independently detecting and destroying ballistic missiles during the boost phase of flight by colliding with them at extremely high speed.
Brilliant Pebbles became a major element of the Pentagon's planned missile defense architecture in the early 1990s. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, defense priorities shifted and the program was canceled in 1994 before any operational constellation was deployed.
DSP, Brilliant Pebbles and SBI: What's the Difference?
Although the programs are often discussed together, they were designed for very different purposes.
DSP (1970-present) was created to detect missile launches. Its satellites act as eyes in the sky, providing early warning when rockets leave the ground.
Brilliant Pebbles (1987-1994) was designed to go further. Rather than simply spotting missiles, it envisioned thousands of interceptor spacecraft capable of destroying them shortly after launch. The concept never entered operational service.
Space-Based Interceptor (2026-) shares the same fundamental objective as Brilliant Pebbles. Like Reagan's proposal, it seeks to place interceptor spacecraft in orbit. Unlike DSP, the goal is not merely to observe threats but to engage and potentially destroy them.
The result is a potentially historic shift in U.S. missile defense policy. America has operated missile-warning satellites in space for more than half a century, but it has never deployed operational missile interceptors in orbit.
"Adversary capabilities are advancing rapidly, and our acquisition strategies must move even faster to counter the growing speed and maneuverability of modern missile threats," Space Force Colonel Bryon McClain, program executive officer for Space Combat Power, said in a statement announcing the program. The service says it aims to demonstrate an initial capability by 2028.
If Golden Dome's Space-Based Interceptor program ultimately succeeds, it would represent the closest the United States has come to realizing a vision first pursued during the Reagan era: transforming military satellites from observers of missile launches into active participants in missile defense.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and Emma Lee-Sang
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