Page 14 - Tracking Layer News Today

Low-Earth orbit demonstration last month supports U.S. National Defense Space Architecture.

CACI International Inc demonstrated space-to-space optical communications links in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) as part of the Mandrake II mission. CACI

"What we're trying to do is just like you do with your financial portfolios, where you diversify your financial portfolio, so you don't go broke if one stock takes a tumble. We want to do the same thing with our satellite architecture," said CSO Gen. Jay Raymond.

Brig. Gen. Jason Cothern, Space Systems Command (SSC) deputy, told Breaking Defense that about $400 million of the new funds, if appropriated, would go procurement of a new MEO constellation as one part of multi-layered hypersonic missile tracking.

Space Force budget gets a big boost to $24.5B in FY23, focus on resilience The FY23 request is $7 billion more than the $17.4 billion the service asked for...

The FY23 request is $7 billion more than the $17.4 billion the service asked for in FY22, with much of it going towards R&D efforts.

The Space Development Agency intends to issue a solicitation for 28 "Tranche 1 Tracking Layer" satellites within the next two weeks, a senior official said, with an eye on making awards to two vendors.

A decision about whether to go forward this year with Tracking Layer Tranche 1 or wait until fiscal 2023 funds are available could happen "within the next few weeks," said SDA Director Derek Tournear.

On-board, or "edge," processing is key to SDA's plans to develop a satellite network that can gather data from multiple sensors on the ground, at sea and in space to provide operators with precise, near-real-time targeting information.

German optical communication technologies company Tesat-Spacecom (Tesat) is expanding its footprint into the United States to provide optical