Iridium Receives DISA Contract to Provide US Space Force With SATCOM Services

Iridium Communications has secured an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract from the Defense Information Systems Agency to provide its Iridium Certus satellite communication services to the U.S. Space Force. Iridium’s deliverables under the contract include weather-resilient global broadband and mid-band mobile voice and data services and terminals. The IDIQ contract, which features a five-year base with one five-year […]
Posted on by Arthur McMiler

Ball Aerospace to Develop Instrument for NOAA Geostationary Extended Observations Program

Ball Aerospace has secured a potential 15-year, $486.9 million NASA contract to develop the sounder instruments for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Extended Observations program. The GeoXO Sounder is a hyperspectral infrared instrument that will provide real-time information about the atmosphere over the western hemisphere. The sounder will be used to improve weather […]
Posted on by Lawrence Carter

Northrop Selects Geost to Supply Optical Sensor Payloads for Tracking Layer Satellites

Northrop Grumman has awarded LightRidge Solutions company Geost a contract to supply eight optical sensor payloads for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Tracking Layer satellites. Under the contract, Geost will deliver Starlite payloads, a smaller and more affordable version of the company’s sensors for large geostationary satellites. Starlite will be designed with the capability […]
Posted on by Lauren Grey

US Space Force, NRO Launch Mission to Track Adversary Satellites in Geostationary Orbit

The National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. Space Force’s NROL-107 mission, also called SilentBarker, achieved geostationary Earth orbit Sunday for surveillance of U.S. adversaries in space. The mission was launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.  According to NRO Director Chris Scolese, SilentBarker will […]
Posted on by Arthur McMiler

RAND Report: Space Force Needs Enterprise Approach in Procuring Satellite Communication Capabilities

A RAND Corp. report found that the U.S. Space Force needs to overhaul the way it buys commercial satellite communications services. According to RAND, existing methods for procuring commercial SATCOM services prevent the government from maximizing commercial innovations. Specifically, the Space Force uses separate contracts with individual providers to procure capabilities, an arrangement RAND said […]
Posted on by Lawrence Carter

Viasat Secures $900M Space Force Contract to Provide Proliferated Low-Earth Orbit Connectivity

The Defense Information Systems Agency has awarded Viasat’s Inmarsat Government unit a position on a 10-year, $900 million indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity contract to provide proliferated low-Earth orbit satellite-based services. DISA made the award on behalf of the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command. Viasat is expected to deliver space relay services and other PLEO capabilities […]
Posted on by Noah Lowell

Ball Aerospace Concludes WSF-M Satellite Testing

Ball Aerospace has tested the Weather System Follow-on – Microwave satellite, designed to enhance the Department of Defense’s space-based environmental monitoring capabilities. As prime contractor for the WSF-M project, Ball designed, built and integrated the spacecraft bus, ground data processing software and the Microwave Imager instrument that will collect environmental data at multiple frequencies. The […]
Posted on by Lawrence Carter

Glenn Research Facility to Evaluate Teraphysics Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier

Teraphysics has entered into a Space Act agreement with NASA’s Glenn Research Facility to certify that the company’s microfabricated E-band helical traveling wave tube amplifier is suitable for space-to-Earth radio frequency telecommunication links. Work under the agreement includes evaluating the miniaturized product as a communication amplifier for satellite and terrestrial communications and demonstrating its performance […]
Posted on by Lauren Grey