Government/Military

Aerojet Rocketdyne entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to design and manufacture a lightweight rocket engine thrust chamber assembly using additive manufacturing processes and materials. The goal of the project is to reduce manufacturing costs and make a thrust chamber that is easily scalable to support a variety of missions,...

Raytheon will develop new space systems and flight software, and provide engineering, training, and operations support for NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech, under a five-year, $150 million contract. The contract could potentially be worth $300 million over 10 years if all options are exercised. Work on the new contract is expected to begin in October. Raytheon...

The Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM), the third in a U.S.-European series of satellite missions designed to measure sea surface height, successfully ended its science mission on Oct. 1. NASA and its mission partners made the decision to end the mission after detecting deterioration in the spacecraft’s power system. Jason-2/OSTM, a joint NASA mission with...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is on track to announce a new commercial partner for its robotic servicing payload by the end of the year, with plans to have a spacecraft in orbit in 2022. “I’m standing here with a smile on my face. The program is moving forward and things are looking good...

Aerojet Rocketdyne was awarded a contract worth up to nearly $19 million by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to mature Axial Upper Stage (AUS) component technologies and analytical tools to demonstrate component, material and architecture solutions to support future hypersonic development efforts. This effort will focus on risk reduction of AUS technology that will...

In July this year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) put out a report looking at how to create a safer aviation environment. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) looked at the differences and potential of both Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract (ADS-C) technologies in order to create this safer environment. Both technologies...

Iridium Communications was awarded a five year, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract from the Defense Information Systems Agency on behalf of the U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSpC) with potential revenues up to $76 million. Known as the Gateway Evolution Contract (GEC), this contract aims to enable ongoing innovation and enhancements for the U.S. government’s...

Ball Aerospace delivered the Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2) for Landsat 9, completing development of the instrument on schedule and under budget. Ball will continue to support instrument integration and spacecraft-level testing, working closely with NASA and the Landsat 9 spacecraft provider. The Operational Land Imager 2 design is a virtual copy of the instrument’s...

Southwest Research Institute-led The Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission entered Phase B, which marks the transition from concept study to preliminary flight design. The mission is set to launch in early 2023 and will image the Sun’s outer corona and beyond. NASA selected SwRI in June 2019 to lead the PUNCH...

KBR was awarded two contract modifications totaling almost $40 million to upgrade remote tracking stations in the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). The U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSC) Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) awarded these firm fixed price modifications under the existing Hybrid Remote Tracking Station (RTS) Block Change (RBC) Contract. KBR...