The Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded a contract worth approximately $515 million to California-based Rocket Lab for 18 satellites that will help form the Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) of its massive low-Earth orbit constellation.
After proving last month that the Link 16 data network can broadcast from space to the ground, the director of the Space Development Agency expects to test similar connections for datalinks that are more advanced than the 1980s-era Link 16.
The Space Development Agency (SDA) has demonstrated the first-ever Link 16 network broadcast from space to the ground, the agency announced Nov. 28—a key milestone for its new constellation of satellites.
Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, has made it his mission to spearhead innovation and change in the Pentagon’s approach to space acquisition. In a recent LinkedIn post, he doubled down on that commitment to "constructive disruption"—and pushed back on what he said ...
China is building up its space capabilities at an “incredible rate”—and it has done so by embracing needed principles the U.S. has historically been slow to adopt, top Space Force officials said. Speaking at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Security Forum, both Vice Chief of Space ...
Having become a part of the Space Force this month, the Space Development Agency expects little disruption—so to speak—to getting its initial constellation into orbit in time for military exercises next summer, said SDA director Derek Tournear. He anticipated no personnel changes from the transition. ...
The Space Development Agency awarded L3Harris and Northrop Grumman Strategic Space Systems contracts to build Tranche 1 of the Tracking Layer for its planned National Defense Space Architecture, a multipurpose defense constellation. Each company will build 14 low-Earth-orbit satellites to detect and track the infrared ...
Detailed justification for the Space Force’s fiscal 2023 budget request revealed facility expansions for new radar and intercontinental ballistic missile programs and the breakdown of how the service would like to spend $1 billion on missile warning and tracking.
The Space Development Agency’s experimental Low Earth Orbit (LEO) data transport constellation will employ bleeding edge new technology in space when it starts to launch later this year. But down on the ground, SDA Director Derek M. Tournear told the Space Symposium April 6, the ...
A satellite constellation specially suited to tracking hypersonic missiles could be up and running by 2025. Director of the Space Development Agency Derek M. Tournear laid out the advantages of the Tracking Layer of SDA’s still-envisioned National Security Space Architecture in a virtual talk Jan. ...
The Biden Administration has economically sanctioned five individual North Koreans, a Russian national, and a Russian company in response to six missile tests conducted by Pyongyang since September, which the Administration says violate U.N. Security Council resolutions. The sanctions, which follow a Jan. 11 hypersonic ...
After one of the bidders lodged a protest the same day proposals were due for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer earlier this month, the agency is planning to rescind that request—and to issue a new one under a different acquisition authority.