Government/Military

Comtech Telecommunications announced today that its subsidiary, Comtech Mobile Datacom, was awarded option period one of a contract to support the U.S. Army’s Project Manager Mission Command (PM MC) Blue Force Tracking (BFT-1) program. The option has an overall potential value of approximately $8 million. BFT-1 is a battle command, real-time situational awareness and control...

Today has been a pivotal day for the United Kingtom space industry. The U.K. government announced definitive plans for new spaceports, which will enhance its satellite and rocket launch capabilities. In a day full of news, the U.K. government also announced: Lockheed Martin will establish vertical launch operations in Sutherland, Scotland and develop innovative technologies...

NASA awarded Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information, and Services business $59 million for additional work on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Joint Polar Satellite System Common Ground System project (JPSS CGS). The JPSS CGS was developed by NASA for NOAA, and collects and disseminates observations from polar-orbiting weather satellites from the U.S., Europe, and Japan. The...

Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump nominated U.S. Senate Deputy Sergeant at Arms James Morhard to be NASA’s new deputy administrator. Reactions to the nomination were mixed, considering that NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine very publicly recommended Janet Kavandi, a former NASA astronaut and engineer at Boeing, for the post, stating a need for the candidate to...

A consortium led by Airbus Defense and Space, and involving Planet, IGN-France and Space4environment, awarded a multi-million Euro contract to UrtheCast and its subsidiary Deimos Imaging, to provide a large set of Earth observation products and services to the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA). The exact value of the contract was not...

Inmarsat Government has been boosted by the news that a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA ASI) Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) flight test has successfully used SwiftBroadband, Inmarsat’s L-band service. GA ASI-owned MQ-9B SkyGuardian RPA flew from the company’s Flight Test and Training Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S., to the United Kingdom’s Royal Air...

Telesat has made a key technology move as it looks to build out its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation. The Canadian operator has signed a memorandum of understanding with General Dynamics Mission Systems, a secure communication and information systems provider, to collaborate on developing user terminals for its LEO satellite constellation. The user terminals will...

Comtech Telecommunications Corporation announced today that its subsidiary, Comtech Xicom Technology, has received a follow-on contract from a U.S. military integrator for high-power satellite communication Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs). The contract is worth more than $4.8 million. Comtech Xicom Technology manufactures a variety of tube-based and solid-state power amplifiers for military and commercial satellite...

Goonhilly Earth Station, a U.K. space company, has launched its roadmap for commercial space communications, space exploration, data services, and engineering design. These new services will be provided in part by a recent 32.4 million pounds ($43.05 million) in investment and contract wins. Goonhilly has a fully funded plan to launch a private deep space...

Lockheed Martin signed a contract with Guardtime Federal, a cybersecurity company servicing the U.S. government, to incorporate a variety of integrity and cyber-related capabilities into Lockheed Martin aircraft products and processes. The contract focuses on reducing the attack surface of the information supply chain, which forwards information to and from operational aircraft systems. The new...