Government/Military

Satellite operator Iridium and manufacturer Lockheed Martin have joined several private industry groups in signing a petition asking the FCC  to reconsider its recent order to allow Ligado Networks to rezone and resell its L-band satellite spectrum holdings for 5G terrestrial use. Other petitioners include: the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA); the Airline Pilots Association; the Association...

Roccor, a small satellite market hardware supplier, has created a deployable L-band antenna that it says makes the reception and transmission of Link 16 signals via spacecraft possible. This development, which Roccor announced Tuesday, is in partnership with Viasat, Inc., and the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate, and is part of the first...

Luxembourg-based data-as-a-service company Kleos Space has been contracted to provide Radio Frequency (RF) geolocation intelligence data to the Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory‘s (SDL) Micro-Satellite Military Utility (MSMU) project in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). “Our satellites and our data will enhance defense capabilities when fused with other data sets...

The head of NASA’s human spaceflight office has resigned just one week before the agency is expected to launch astronauts from American soil for the first time in nearly a decade, according to a congressional notification obtained by POLITICO. Douglas Loverro has served as the associate administrator for the human exploration and operations mission directorate...

The U.S. Space Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $2.3 billion contract for early hardware procurement to build two satellites for missile warning in polar orbits under the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) program. The satellites included in the May 18 contract award will help fill out the Next-Gen OPIR Block 0 architecture, for which...

Isotropic Systems has received an antenna evaluation and development contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), an organization within the U.S. Department of Defense. The contract will test the ability of Isotropic’s patented multi-beam antennas for high-powered bandwidth aboard next-gen Naval vessels at sea. The collaboration contract is focused on the delivery of a low-profile,...

Envistacom, LLC, has been awarded a task order to deliver Satcom On The Quick Halt (SOTQH) communication systems for MRZR vehicles to specialized U.S. Army units. The systems combine terminal technology from Lite Coms and will be integrated at Envistacom’s Innovation Center, in Duluth, Georgia, the companies announced May 12. A financial component to the...

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is weighing options to assist vulnerable space startups that have been hit hard by the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Space Force’s number-two officer said May 12. The nascent military branch remains “greatly concerned” about the economic impact of the coronavirus on commercial and defense-related companies, including...

Capella Space has signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to provide Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to the U.S. Navy, through the Defense Innovation Unit’s Commercial Solutions Opening.  Capella announced Wednesday that it will provide the DoD with SAR data collected by an airborne collection campaign using Capella’s synthetic radar flown...

The FCC approved an order on Wednesday requiring foreign-licensed space stations with access to the U.S. market to pay regulatory fees to the FCC. The Commission said that it is “unfair to saddle American satellite companies with fees while their foreign competitors with the same market access do not face those same costs.” The FCC...