Government/Military

NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate awarded Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) a $4.9 million contract to develop a technology that allows BCT’s spacecraft buses to perform autonomous navigation on-board, without any additional hardware. The news came as part of NASA’s recent announcement of more than $40 million in contracts to 14 companies as part of its “Tipping...

Comtech Telecommunications revealed that during its first quarter of fiscal year 2020, its Mission-Critical Technologies group, which is part of Comtech’s Government Solutions segment, was awarded a contract with a $98.6 million ceiling to provide global field support services for military satellite communication terminals around the world. The contract has been initially funded at $22.2...

The U.S. Navy‘s Naval Undersea Warfare Center awarded Serco the sole awardee for an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract to deliver system engineering technical services for the Submarine High Data Rate (SubHDR) program. The contract vehicle has an estimated ceiling value of $49 million over five years. Serco will continue to perform repair and overhauls...

How important are precision agriculture and global food and water supply monitoring applications to our future? Via Satellite’s On Orbit podcast takes a look at the numbers: The world’s population will go from 7.5 billion to 9 billion people in 30 years. Because of this, American farmers alone will be tasked to increase food production...

Firefly Black, the national security and civil space subsidiary of Firefly Aerospace, was selected by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Small Launch and Targets Division as a launch service provider for the Orbital Services Program-4 (OSP-4) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract. Valued at up to $986 million, OSP-4 seeks to provide the...

Viasat revealed the availability of a government-focused terminal modification kit that aims to provide third-party terminal vendors with regional access to satcom architectures including hybrid, multi-network architectures. The modification kit is available for immediate purchase and testing by third-party terminal providers working with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and international coalition militaries. The third-party...

The U.S. Air Force‘s Next Generation OPIR Geosynchronous Earth Orbiting (GEO) satellite program, commonly referred to as NGG, achieved another milestone by completing its system/ground and space vehicle Preliminary Design Review (PDR) on Sept. 27. Next Generation OPIR aims to provide a capable, resilient, and defensible space-based global missile warning capability against emerging threats, and...

Maxar Technologies will open a new facility in St. Louis, Missouri, to support growth in several U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) programs. The facility will be located in the Globe Building, in downtown St. Louis. Maxar expects 48 employees to initially staff the facility, most of whom are new hires that will support the NGA’s...

Seakr Engineering was awarded a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Pit Boss contract supporting the Blackjack Proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Demonstration Program. Key contributors to Seakr’s Pit Boss effort are Microsoft, Applied Technology Associates (ATA), Advanced Solutions (ASI), Kythera Space Solutions, and NKrypt. DARPA’s Blackjack program focuses on integrating commercial satellite technologies into a...

Viasat established two sovereign Maintenance, Test, and Integration Facilities (MTIF) in Canberra and Newcastle, Australia. The facilities are located to help align with Australia’s needs and provide access to service and support capabilities for the Australian Defense Force (ADF). The first MTIF, established within the Canberra airport precinct, was developed to provide technical support, product...