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“BACK TO THE FUTURE NASA’S NEW NUCLEAR VISION” was the headline emblazoned on the cover this past month of the leading U.S. aerospace trade publication, Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Share April 27, 2021 DARPA has commissioned Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin to design an operational spacecraft at the same time as an orbital demonstrator.
Credit: DARPA
A nebulously named “Deterrence Layer” is on the drawing board for the National Defense Space Architecture, and that could mean the return of a functioning U.S.-operated, nuclear-powered satellite in orbit by 2025 for the first time in 60 years. The need for the Deterrence Layer may depend on what.
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By
Theresa Hitchens on February 11, 2021 at 5:24 PM
WASHINGTON: The Space Development Agency (SDA) plans to issue a request for proposals this summer for some 150 satellites to provide “initial warfighting capability” for communications and missile tracking, says SDA Director Derek Tournear.
The new satellites, to be launched in September 2024, will comprise what SDA calls “Tranche 1” of its planned seven-layer National Defense Space Architecture. They will follow-on the 20 Transport Layer satellites for porting data to users and the 10 Tracking Layer missile warning and tracking sats planned for launch in March 2023 to demonstrate capabilities, Tournear told the SmallSat Symposium today.
According to the slides Tournear presented today, the Tranche 1 satellites will allow “persistent regional access” for warfighters on the ground. “Tranche 1 is going to be a big deal,” he said.