Government/Military

Intellian Technologies received Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) certification for its ARC-M4 Block 1 multi-band, multi-orbit satellite terminal. This terminal is known as the AN/USC-75 in the JETDAS military naming system. Intellian called the terminal the “first modern hybrid Naval terminal” because it enables milsatcom/WGS and commercial assets with a single terminal.  The terminal is already...

Telespazio has won a new contract from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to help expand the space capacity of the ASI Sardinia Deep Space Antenna (SDSA). The SDSA already shares a portion of its systems and infrastructures with the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), managed by the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) for the purposes of...

NASA awarded Aalyria and Intuitive Machines contracts to perform studies to advance space communication capabilities.  Aalyria received a contract to demonstrate its Spacetime network management software for the NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) network. The award announced this week is worth $393,004 and was awarded under NASA’s NextSTEP-2 program.  Aalyria aims to show how...

BlackSky Technology will research advanced optical inter-satellite link terminal applications for the U.S. Navy after winning a competitive contract under the the Navy’s Project Overmatch and the Department of Defense’s Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) initiative. Under the development deal, BlackSky will explore applications hosted on its 3rd generation imaging satellites, and establish...

Astranis, Axient, L3Harris Technologies, and Sierra Space are to submit design concepts for the Resilient Global Positioning System (R-GPS) to U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) to launch up to eight R-GPS satellites by 2028, the command said on Tuesday. “Following this initial phase, a subset of the awardees will continue to a Final Design Review and build...

Viasat will develop a phased array antenna for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory under a contract as part of the ‘Global Lightning’ program.  The AFRL awarded Viasat a $33.6 million contract under the Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) program, the operator announced Tuesday. The DEUCSI program, known as ‘Global Lightning’ aims to...

PARIS — SpaceX’s Starshield now looms large over the Earth observation (EO) market as industry players look to grow revenues in a market that has not always lived up to the potential and hype.  SpaceX announced plans for its Starshield business line in late 2022, including building EO satellites to support national security efforts. Then...

PARIS — International Space Command leaders are pushing for more cooperation in space as the domain becomes more contested. Speaking at the Space Defense and Security Summit this week in Paris, Maj. Gen. Philippe Adam, Space Commander, French Space Command, hailed French efforts here, building up the French Space Command over the last five years....

SpaceX sent a letter to Congress this week taking issue with the speed that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is able to approve licensing materials, after the FAA proposed $633,009 in civil penalties against SpaceX.  The FAA proposed the fines on Sept. 17, saying that SpaceX failed to follow its license requirements during two launches...

Astranis won a U.S. Space Force contract to add military Ka-band frequency compatibility to its next-generation Omega satellite.  Space Systems Command (SSC) and U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) announced on Sept. 19 the award to Astranis for a $13.2 million contract, with $3.3 million of SSC funding. This jointly-funded strategic funding increase (STRATFI) will have support...