The Space Development Agency is fine-tuning and expanding its data transport satellites’ Link 16 connectivity, preparing for them to become the “backbone” of the Pentagon’s ambitious joint all-domain command and control system—and perhaps beyond that to NATO.
The Space Development Agency plans to spend roughly $25.5 billion from 2025 through the end of the decade building out its massive constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites, budget documents show.
The Space Development Agency plans to finish two major demonstrations of its low-Earth orbit satellites—and get started on a rapid series of launches—before the end of 2024, its director said March 6. The series of milestones outlined by SDA boss Derek M. Tournear represent the ...
Space Development Agency director Derek M. Tournear, the driving force behind the Space Force's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, said the service won't change its strategy in the face of reports that Russia is developing a space-based nuclear weapon.
The Department of the Air Force’s space acquisition boss called for industry to stop low-bidding contracts and for the Pentagon to only select realistic proposals on Feb. 23, arguing that failures to do so eventually forces the Space Force to “rob our future to pay ...
Three and a half years after the Space Development Agency awarded the first contracts for its planned satellite constellation in low-Earth orbit, the first batch of spacecraft—Tranche 0—are all in orbit. Four SDA missile warning/missile tracking satellites, along with two satellites for the Missile Defense Agency, ...
The Space Development Agency has selected three contractors to build 54 satellites—48 for missile warning/missile tracking (MW/MT) and six for missile defense—in deals worth a combined $2.5 billion, the agency announced Jan. 16. L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, and Sierra Space will all build 16 MW/MT satellites ...
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 Force’s main acquisition arm, Space Systems Command, announced Nov. 27 it has completed the critical design review for six satellites built by Millennium Space Systems that will go in medium-Earth orbit (MEO), clearing the way to start production ahead of a first scheduled ...
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.
The Space Development Agency has awarded a contract for 62 more satellites for its massive planned constellation in low-Earth orbit, an agency spokesperson confirmed Oct. 20. York Space Systems has been tapped to produce the satellites for the Alpha segment of the Tranche 2 Transport Layer. ...