Page 13 - Tracking Layer News Today

...and U.S. Space Development Agency funding 28 satellites for hostile missile tracking.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) said on July 18 that it has awarded L3Harris and Northrop Grumman fixed price Other Transaction Authority contracts

The awards are a first step in the Space Force's plan, which will move the Defense Department away from today's reliance on a a handful of large expensive satellites in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) and highly elliptical polar orbits, SDA Director Derek Tournear said.

The WFOV satellite, being built by Boeing's Millennium Space Systems, is expected to launch this evening on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket, under the National Security Space Launch program.

"Key for us is allowing on-ramps, allowing for some smaller launches to have a chance," a senior Space Force official told Breaking Defense, in order to avoid billion-dollar "Titan-era prices."

"I'm focusing on laser communication terminals because I think that's the strongest candidate to build in the US," Rob Geckle, CEO of Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, told Breaking Defense.

The Space Force doesn't fare too badly under the House Appropriations defense subcommittee's draft released today — getting a slight bump up from its procurement request but taking a cut in RTD&E.

Kepler Communications has selected Tesat-Spacecom optical inter-satellite links for its next generation of satellites. The Tesat constellation laser

The Space Development Agency (SDA) resorted to a cost-plus contract, rather than SDA’s normal fixed price arrangement, in awarding General Dynamics $324.5

Under the $324.5 million contract, the team will develop the "ground Operations and Integration (O&I) segment for Tranche 1 of the National Defense Space Architecture."