Government/Military

The Space Development Agency (SDA) said on Aug. 7 that an agency Tranche 0 satellite with Link 16 connected recently with an aircraft carrier. “We’ve achieved another major testing milestone for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture by successfully demonstrating the first-ever Link 16 network entry from Tranche 0 satellites in Low-Earth Orbit [LEO] to a...

Northrop Grumman completed the preliminary design review for the 74 satellites it is building for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 2 Beta and Tranche 2 Alpha configurations.  Northrop Grumman is building 38 satellites for the Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL)-Alpha constellation under a contract awarded in October 2023. These satellites are designed to transmit beyond...

SES’s defense subsidiary received a multi-year contract worth $46.8 million to provide managed satellite services to the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command (ACC). SES Space & Defense announced the contract on Wednesday.  Under the contract, SES will provide Geostationary (GEO) Ku-band satellite services to support the ACC’s remotely piloted aircraft training and testing program....

Planetary Systems AI (PSAI) has been selected to participate in the U.S. Space Systems Command’s Space Domain Awareness (SDA) Tools Applications and Processing (TAP) lab.  The SDA TAP Lab is a voluntary three-month tech accelerator that works on space domain awareness challenges.  PSAI is focused on cyber-first and AI/ML solutions for space and satellite operators....

United Launch Alliance (ULA) launched the USSF-51 national security mission for the U.S. Space Force on Tuesday — marking the final national security mission on an Atlas V rocket as ULA transitions to the Vulcan rocket.  The Atlas V rocket first launched in March of 2007 and has launched 53 National Security Space (NSS) missions....

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) issued a pilot project award to geospatial analytics company SynMax and its Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) platform, Theia. SynMax announced Monday that the pilot program will involve testing and evaluation of Theia’s capabilities, focusing on its ability to detect, track, and analyze maritime activities in near real-time. The company will...

Five Rivers Analytics has won a major new U.S. Space Force contract worth up to nearly half a billion dollars. The company, a subsidiary of Akima, has won the Satellite Control Network Tracking Station Operations, Remote Site and Mission Partner Support (STORMS) contract to support the U.S. Space Force. The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ)...

Australia’s SmartSat CRC is joining forces with the New Zealand Government to bring four new joint research projects under the Australia-New Zealand Collaborative Space Program. The four initial research projects, commencing in August 2024, include research into monitoring methane emissions, enhancing real-time monitoring of greenhouse gases, managing free space optical communication nodes across Australia and...

SES Space & Defense has won a new U.S. Army contract help support the military’s connectivity needs. The contract was awarded to Global Enterprise Solutions (GES), which was acquired by SES in 2022, and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary. SES Space & Defense announced the contract award, July 24. The company will provide the U.S....

Planet Labs signed a seven-figure contract expansion with a U.S.-allied international government agency for SkySat satellite data.  Planet announced the SkySat expansion with the unnamed allied nation on Monday. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.  The SkySat fleet provides satellite imagery up to 50 cm resolution with the ability to have multiple revisits...