If all goes well, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off at 7:29 a.m. Pacific time from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., on March 30, carrying the first pieces of the Space Force’s planned constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites. Two and a half years after ...
The Space Development Agency has added another batch of missile-tracking satellites to its expansive constellation, awarding Raytheon a $250 million contract March 2 to build seven spacecraft. Those satellites will join the already-planned 28 satellites in the Tranche 1 Tracking Layer of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space ...
It will take a few extra months for the Space Development Agency’s “Tranche 0”—the initial batch of satellites in SDA’s planned constellation in low-Earth orbit—to lift off, as the agency has delayed two planned launches. The first launch for Tranche 0, which will also be the ...
The House of Representatives voted to pass a new, compromise version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act on Dec. 8, sending the annual defense policy bill to the Senate and setting up its passage before the end of the year. For the Defense Department’s youngest ...
The Space Development Agency’s warfighter council will set requirements in March for the second large batch of satellites to join the Transport Layer of the agency’s National Defense Space Architecture, a planned constellation in low Earth orbit. A solicitation will then go out in the ...
Some of the satellites that will form the planned “backbone” of joint all-domain command and control may include “translation” payloads to let other satellites feed their data into the Pentagon’s massive mesh network, the head of the Space Development Agency said Oct. 25. SDA is ...
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 ...
Tim Ryan of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies moderated a discussion on "The Reality of Space as a Warfighting Domain" with Maj. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess, Space Force deputy commanding general for operations; Derek M. Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency; Robert Atkin ...
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. ...
As the Space Development Agency looks to capitalize on innovation from the fast-expanding commercial space market, the agency's leaders have said they want to constantly have open competitions for the tranches of new satellites projected for every two years. But the SDA’s approach isn’t just increasing ...
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 ...
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee rolled out its draft version of the fiscal 2023 defense funding bill, cutting the Air Force’s planned buy of F-15EX fighters and moving to block any changes to the current system of “pass-through” funding. All told, the top line for ...