WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force has awarded Blue Origin a $78.2 million contract to expand satellite processing capacity at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The three-year agreement, announced Oct. 7, was secured through a “Commercial Solutions Opening” (CSO) competition — a procurement method the Space Force uses to attract private-sector innovation and share project costs with commercial partners.

Building ground infrastructure at the nation’s busiest spaceport is needed to keep up with surging launch demand, officials said.

Blue Origin’s contract marks the second CSO award of the year targeting satellite processing improvements. In April, Lockheed Martin’s Astrotech Space Operations subsidiary received a $77.5 million contract for similar work at Vandenberg Space Force Base in

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