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[Satellite News 09-15-08] Northrop Grumman kicked off a three-day event on Monday, Sept. 15 in Washington D.C. The “2008 AFA Air & Space Conference and Technology Expo” unveiled new projects and featured renowned speakers such as U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. However, the conference also buzzed with concern over continued delays for the Air Force’s biggest projects.
One of these projects is the Air Force’s Transformational Satellite System (TSAT) program, a five-satellite constellation aimed to provide the U.S. Department Of Defense (DOD) with high data rate military satellite communications and Internet services. Officials at the conference, who asked not to be named for this story, said that TSAT’s roll out, like other major Air Force projects, may be delayed due to leadership changes.
Two teams form potential contractor groups for TSAT – one led by Boeing and the other by Lockheed/Northrop Grumman Corp. Each team is working under a $514 million contract for the program’s risk reduction and system definition phase, to culminate with a multi-billion dollar development contract currently scheduled to be awarded to one or the other by the end of 2008.
John Peterson, Boeing’s TSAT program director recently told Satellite News that it presented a new connectivity feature of the Spaceway communication system during a performance monitoring review (PMR). The PMR included help from Boeing’s TSAT team, which includes Raytheon, Ball Aerospace, General Dynamics, IBM, L-3 Communications, Cisco Systems, BBN Technologies, Hughes, LGS Innovations, Harris, EMS Technologies, ICE and Alpha Informatics.
“The PMR that was conducted over the Spaceway system connected three locations – El Segundo and Sunnyville in California and Germantown in Maryland – with real time video teleconferencing using a DOD-approved system to share briefing materials simultaneously to all three locations,” said Peterson who added that the data shared during the demonstration was available via Spaceway to any location in North America.
“This was the first demonstration of its kind,” said Peterson.
According to Peterson the demonstration has boosted its confidence that they will win the TSAT space segment contract. Officials from the Air Force would not comment on the demonstration.
Lockheed/Northrop Grumman Corp.’s TSAT Space Segment team demonstrated a high power hall current thruster electric propulsion system for TSAT in July 2008.
Developed by Lockheed and Aerojet, the hall current propulsion technology aims to provide significantly improved fuel efficiency over conventional chemical propulsion systems.
Lockheed Martin spokesman Stephen Tatum said his company is just as confident it will win the contract arguing that their system is less risky and economically viable.
“We have worked in lock-step with our customer to define a TSAT space segment that is both flexible and executable,” said Tatum. “We have also used our extensive testbed to demonstrate all the capabilities of TSAT from laser communications, to all modes of Ka and EHF radio frequency communications, using emulators of Global Hawk, Predator, fixed and on-the-move terminals, and E2C.”
Peterson argued that his company is prepared for the demands of TSAT ahead of time, which may provide a compelling argument in the face of delays.
“A little over a year ago in April, Boeing demonstrated not only the technologies for our customers but the integration of those technologies together with real hardware and software,” said Peterson. “We have proof that Spaceway provides that kind of capability today, making it as real as it can be before actually deploying it.”
Neither Boeing nor Lockheed Martin would comment on the possibility of delays.
The 2008 AFA Air & Space Conference and Technology Expo continues Tuesday, Sept. 16 with featured speaker General C. Robert Kehler, Commander of the Air Force Space Command.
One of these projects is the Air Force’s Transformational Satellite System (TSAT) program, a five-satellite constellation aimed to provide the U.S. Department Of Defense (DOD) with high data rate military satellite communications and Internet services. Officials at the conference, who asked not to be named for this story, said that TSAT’s roll out, like other major Air Force projects, may be delayed due to leadership changes.
Two teams form potential contractor groups for TSAT – one led by Boeing and the other by Lockheed/Northrop Grumman Corp. Each team is working under a $514 million contract for the program’s risk reduction and system definition phase, to culminate with a multi-billion dollar development contract currently scheduled to be awarded to one or the other by the end of 2008.
John Peterson, Boeing’s TSAT program director recently told Satellite News that it presented a new connectivity feature of the Spaceway communication system during a performance monitoring review (PMR). The PMR included help from Boeing’s TSAT team, which includes Raytheon, Ball Aerospace, General Dynamics, IBM, L-3 Communications, Cisco Systems, BBN Technologies, Hughes, LGS Innovations, Harris, EMS Technologies, ICE and Alpha Informatics.
“The PMR that was conducted over the Spaceway system connected three locations – El Segundo and Sunnyville in California and Germantown in Maryland – with real time video teleconferencing using a DOD-approved system to share briefing materials simultaneously to all three locations,” said Peterson who added that the data shared during the demonstration was available via Spaceway to any location in North America.
“This was the first demonstration of its kind,” said Peterson.
According to Peterson the demonstration has boosted its confidence that they will win the TSAT space segment contract. Officials from the Air Force would not comment on the demonstration.
Lockheed/Northrop Grumman Corp.’s TSAT Space Segment team demonstrated a high power hall current thruster electric propulsion system for TSAT in July 2008.
Developed by Lockheed and Aerojet, the hall current propulsion technology aims to provide significantly improved fuel efficiency over conventional chemical propulsion systems.
Lockheed Martin spokesman Stephen Tatum said his company is just as confident it will win the contract arguing that their system is less risky and economically viable.
“We have worked in lock-step with our customer to define a TSAT space segment that is both flexible and executable,” said Tatum. “We have also used our extensive testbed to demonstrate all the capabilities of TSAT from laser communications, to all modes of Ka and EHF radio frequency communications, using emulators of Global Hawk, Predator, fixed and on-the-move terminals, and E2C.”
Peterson argued that his company is prepared for the demands of TSAT ahead of time, which may provide a compelling argument in the face of delays.
“A little over a year ago in April, Boeing demonstrated not only the technologies for our customers but the integration of those technologies together with real hardware and software,” said Peterson. “We have proof that Spaceway provides that kind of capability today, making it as real as it can be before actually deploying it.”
Neither Boeing nor Lockheed Martin would comment on the possibility of delays.
The 2008 AFA Air & Space Conference and Technology Expo continues Tuesday, Sept. 16 with featured speaker General C. Robert Kehler, Commander of the Air Force Space Command.
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