Government/Military

In one of his final initiatives as President of the United States, Barack Obama introduced an executive order coordinating efforts to prepare the country for space weather events. Since its signing, government organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have collaborated to reconstruct their strategies and put...

Northrop Grumman has delivered mid-boom assemblies for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Astro Aerospace, a Northrop Grumman business, designed, built and tested the graphite-epoxy assemblies. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is comprised of four major components — the telescope, the integrated science instrument module, the spacecraft and the sunshield. The two boom assemblies will help...

Under an Authority to Proceed signed with prime contractor OHB-System AG, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) is commencing work on eight navigation payloads for Galileo, Europe’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The contract will be worth approximately 140 million euros ($156.5 million), and is a continuation of a long cooperation between SSTL and OHB-System AG, with the...

Harris Corporation has delivered a digital weather satellite instrument to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) that will help forecasters safeguard people in the region from typhoons and other severe weather. KARI will integrate the Harris-built Advanced Meteorological Imager (AMI) into the next-generation Geo-Kompsat 2A weather satellite, scheduled to launch in 2018. According to Harris,...

Boeing has awarded ViaSat a multi-year contract for two-channel Small Tactical Terminals (STTs) for the AH-64E Apache Guardian. Production of ViaSat’s KOR-24A Link 16 terminal will be designated for the U.S. Army and foreign military sales. The base contract covers a minimum of 534 terminals to be produced over the next four years. ViaSat said...

ViaSat announced it received a follow-on contract from Lockheed Martin to deliver datalink communications for the integration and test phase of the U.S. Navy’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program. The contract calls for ViaSat to provide Weapon Data Link (WDL) L-Band Units (LBU) to support the overall missile test program’s datalink communications requirements, as...

NanoRacks and NASA have signed the contract for Ixion, a commercial habitat concept study first announced last summer that will focus on repurposing spent launch vehicle upper stages. NanoRacks is working with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to provide launch services as well as Space Systems Loral (SSL), which will provide robotic outfitting capabilities. Funded by...

The Peruvian government has made a commitment to make its national vessel tracking data publicly available through Global Fishing Watch, which provides a global view of commercial fishing activity. The commitment, which Peru’s Ministry of Production announced at The Ocean Conference hosted by the United Nations in New York City, is the result of Oceana’s collaboration...

Adaptive Optics Associates (AOX), a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, has received a sole-source contract to provide mission-critical optical technology for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) coronagraph instrument. The AOX team successfully completed the preliminary design studies in early 2016 with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). WFIRST is a future infrared space observatory that...

What do you get when you mix a business jet with a spaceship? Presumably, it would result in Phantom Express, Boeing and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) aircraft-like vehicle. DARPA selected Boeing to complete advanced design work, and investment is coming from both parties. The United States is looking to develop low-cost,...