Plus: Space Force lets SpaceX design LEO network
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By Sandra Erwin L3Harris Technologies is moving a missile-tracking satellite developed for the Missile Defense Agency into production for Golden Dome with few design changes.
The company in July received a $955 million Space Development Agency contract for 18 Accelerated Missile Defense Tranche 3, or AMDT3, satellites, which will carry sensors designed to produce precise tracking data needed to support missile intercepts.
The spacecraft are closely based on the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, or HBTSS, prototype that L3Harris launched in 2024 and subsequently tested on orbit.
“It’s really as close to ‘build to print’ as you can get,” Rob Mitrevski, president of Golden Dome strategy and integration at L3Harris, told reporters Sept. 16 at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. Read More |
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L3Harris has supported military and commercial customers for more than 100 years, with more than 70 years directly supporting the Department of the U.S. Air Force. L3Harris is committed to serving the needs of the Air Force and Space Force and to powering our nation’s defense. Learn more. |
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The U.S. Space Force is giving SpaceX latitude to design one of the military’s new low-Earth orbit satellite networks, setting performance requirements rather than prescribing the number and configuration of spacecraft needed to meet them.
The approach is being used for the Space Data Network Backbone, or SDN-B, a high-capacity communications network for moving military data through space. SpaceX received a $2.29 billion contract in May to deliver the initial backbone, an optically interconnected mesh of satellites.
But rather than prescribe a spacecraft count, the Space Force set constellation-level requirements for coverage, capacity, number of users and data throughput, Col. Ryan Frazier, acting portfolio acquisition executive for Space-Based Sensing and Targeting, told reporters Sept. 15 at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference.
“The constellation that we put on contract was not for, like, numbers of vehicles,” Frazier said. The contract instead established “constellation-level requirements.” Read More |
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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman made a national security case for America’s return to the moon, telling a military audience that the outcome of the intensifying lunar competition with China could shape alliances, technology standards and perceptions of U.S. power.
The Space Force’s new acquisition chief says his immediate task is turning the service’s recently completed acquisition overhaul into faster delivery of satellites, weapons and other capabilities. |
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