Government/Military

[Via Satellite 04-08-2016] The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is progressing with the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1), shifting the program into Phase 2. The XS-1 program seeks to design and fabricate an unmanned, reusable spaceplane that would demonstrate the potential for low-cost and “aircraft-like” high-ops-tempo space flight. According to DARPA, the program could enable...

[Via Satellite 04-08-2016] The U.S. Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center (USAF SMC) and the 460th Space Wing have confirmed that Command and Control (C2) of the Space-Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) and Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites and payloads have been transferred from their legacy ground system to the new Block 10...

[Via Satellite 04-07-2016] Lockheed Martin, current prime contractor for the GPS 3 satellites, has issued a competitive proposal to the U.S. Air Force as the military opens up future satellites to greater competition. According to the company, the proposal demonstrates how Lockheed Martin’s GPS 3 design is evolvable for future Air Force needs, building on...

[Via Satellite 04-06-2016] Northrop Grumman has submitted a proposal to the United States Air Force for the next-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) 3 program. The Air Force is looking to update the GPS system, which has been delivering precise global position, navigation and timing services worldwide for more than two decades. Northrop Grumman’s proposal is based on a navigational...

[Via Satellite 04-05-2016] The U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is seeing growing demand for its Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) that provides free space weather products and services. The agency’s National SWPC Physicist Terrance Onsager said April 4 the agency spends roughly $10 million per year on SWPC and likely more if the...

[Via Satellite 04-04-2016] UrtheCast has formed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to boost the operational effectiveness of the company’s upcoming OptiSAR constellation. The agreement enables the two organizations to collaborate on Research and Development (R&D) related to the primary areas of multi-source fusion, improving/ensuring metric accuracy,...

[Via Satellite 03-30-2016] During his time working with the U.S. Air Force, Earl White, former Air Force senior executive and intelligence advisor at the U.S. Space Security and Defense Program, says that he saw three major unsolicited hosted payload proposals come through Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), each of which “would have leveraged large commercial...

[Via Satellite 04-04-2016] The relationship between the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the commercial satellite industry has improved over the past few years, according to Eron Miller, chief of the agency’s satcom division infrastructure directorate. This shift comes at a critical inflection point too, as the U.S. military is now gauging its future...

[Via Satellite 03-31-2016] Comtech Telecommunications subsidiary Comtech PST Corp. received multiple orders totaling approximately $2.2 million for broadband, solid-state, high-power Radio Frequency (RF) microwave amplifier systems during its second quarter of fiscal 2016. The follow-on orders came from an international Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). The amplifier systems provide for very broad frequency coverage and will...

[Via Satellite 03-28-2016] Costs for the Force Element Terminal (FET) portion of the U.S. Air Force’s Family of Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) program increased 24 percent in 2015 compared to 2014, according to the Pentagon’s Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) released Thursday, March 24. The SAR lists programs that featured cost changes greater than $1 billion...