Government/Military

Viasat has won an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with an initial ceiling of $350 million for advanced equipment, systems, services and support to modernize ground/air situational awareness, tactical data links, terrestrial networking, Intelligence, Surveillance, And Reconnaissance (ISR), tactical satellite communications, information assurance, network management and cybersecurity for Special Operations Forces. According to Viasat, the...

Cubic Corporation announced its GATR satellite antenna systems will proceed to Full Rate Production (FRP) for the U.S. Army’s Transportable Tactical Command Communications (T2C2) program. The FRP decision will enable the Army’s program office to procure and field Cubic’s Gatr satellite antenna systems to Army units. The Gatr 1.2-meter and 2.4-meter inflatable satellite terminals provide...

North Korea intends to launch an advanced reconnaissance satellite in the near future (Kwangmyongsong 5), yet another step to improve the technology supporting its military endeavors. This move and others have unnerved the country’s neighbors China and Japan, forcing them to pour their own money into improving their defensive space capabilities. Read more at The...

A new congressional requirement may force the U.S. Air Force to disband its new space operations directorate, according to Via Satellite’s sister publication Defense Daily. Last week, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson stated the service is working to find a way to comply with the law while also maintaining the entity it has put together...

A NASA research mission is hitching a ride to orbit on a commercial communications satellite this month for the first time in the agency’s history. NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission, an instrument designed to monitor the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, will operate as a hosted payload on SES’ new...

For decades, several countries have competed to claim territory within the South China Sea, and China is no exception. Now, the country — which already has more advanced maritime technology than its rivals nearby — is launching multiple observation satellites to improve its situational awareness in the region. Read more at VOA

United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully completed an Atlas 5 Launch Segment Design Certification Review (DCR) recently in preparation for the launch of astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from U.S. soil in Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. ULA’s Atlas 5 DCR supported the Boeing ISS DCR that was held with NASA at Kennedy Space Center...

Scotland has been a fast riser in the new era of space technology, with companies such as Clyde Space setting a high bar for other NewSpace entrants. The Scottish government is pushing to maintain this momentum through a multitude of different agencies that offer incentives to attract young tech companies to set up shop in the...

Kymeta announced that its Kymeta Government Solutions (KGS) division has successfully completed month-long sea trials on small watercraft with an undisclosed U.S. government customer using its Kalo satellite internet services bundled with Kymeta KyWay terminals. Kymeta performed the trials as the vessels moved from inland waterways to distances as far as 100 miles offshore, experiencing...

MDA announced that it has signed a contract valued at approximately CA$15 million ($11.8 million) with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Communications and Information Agency (NCI). MDA will build a new system to support NATO’s maritime command and control operations under Project Triton based on a modern software architecture and technology. This capability will...