Government/Military

Ball Aerospace, teamed with Booz Allen Hamilton, was awarded a contract by the U.S. Space Rapid Capabilities Office (SpRCO) to serve as the prime system integrator for the SpRCO Ground Command, Control and Communications (GC3) system. GC3 will integrate into and help enable the larger tactical command and control enterprise for the U.S. Space Force....

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted OneWeb‘s market access to expand its Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation to 2,000 satellites with a V-band payload in addition to its Ku- and Ka-band constellation. OneWeb petitioned to add a V-band payload to the 720 satellite Ku- and Ka-band constellation approved by the FCC in 2017, proposing 1,280 additional...

Congressional negotiators are considering whether NASA contracts awarded to Elon Musk’s SpaceX represent a potential national security risk due to Chinese financial support for the billionaire owner’s electric car company, Tesla. “What is there to stop them from going to Musk directly and saying, ‘We’ll call your line of credit early, unless you give us X,...

A report this month by a panel of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Space Commerce (OSC) in the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to ramp up efforts to ensure unimpeded satellite orbits. The panel’s chairman, Michael Dominguez, a former senior official with U.S. Department...

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is preparing a Delta IV Heavy rocket with a classified National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) payload, NROL-44, for launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on Aug. 26. Launch preparations for NROL-44 began last year, and the classified payload arrived and was mounted on the rocket at Space Launch Complex-37 (SLC-37) at...

The U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) awarded LinQuest Corporation $76 million for a contract modification. LinQuest will serve as the prime contractor, and will provide additional systems engineering and integration support to the satcom enterprise at SMC. LinQuest Corporation is a space systems technology company that provides services and solutions to...

The Mission-Critical Technologies group of Comtech Telecommunications has been awarded $20 million in additional funding from the U.S. Army for a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) contract. The additional funding, announced earlier this month, is part of a $223.4 million VSAT contract that has been funded $214.9 million to date. The funding was received in...

The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) awarded Cubic Mission Solutions (CMS) a follow-on, single-award, Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (ID/IQ) contract with a ceiling of $172 million. The contract is for the delivery of Ground Area Transmit Receive (GATR) inflatable satcom terminals and baseband communications equipment in support of Special Operations Forces (SOF) communications requirements. The contract consists...

The newest military GPS satellite has recently received Operational Acceptance approval. Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) public affairs announced Monday that the GPS III Space Vehicle 03 received approval from the U.S. Space Force on July 27. The satellite was launched by SpaceX on June 30.  The GPS III satellites are the newest generation...

The GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) revealed on Monday that BAE Systems is the newest member of the organization. BAE Systems will work with GPSIA to support its goal of enhancing GPS innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship — and is the third aerospace and defense corporation to join in eight months. The company joins other members including...