[Satellite TODAY 12-21-09] Orbital Sciences was awarded a $74.6 million Phase 2 contract by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the final design for the System F6 spacecraft.
    Orbital will partner with IBM and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the project and will be responsible for the detailed design and ground testing of the new technologies, architectures and programmatic concepts required to successfully fractionate a space system. These technologies include wireless data communications, cluster flight operations, distributed spacecraft computing systems, rapidly relocatable ground systems and value-centric design methodologies.
    The System F6 program aims to develop and demonstrate the basic building blocks of a new space architecture in which traditional large, multi-functional monolithic spacecraft are replaced by clusters of wirelessly interconnected spacecraft modules.
.    A System F6 flight demonstration is planned for 2013.

Related Stories-

Orbital Sciences to Build IS-23 for Intelsat   Satellite Today   December 18, 2009
[Satellite TODAY 12-18-09] Orbital Sciences has been selected by Intelsat to build the Intelsat 23 (IS-23) communications satellite based on Orbital’s Star-2 platform, the company announced Dec. 17.

Taurus 2 Second Stage Launcher Completes Ground Testing   Satellite Today   December 11, 2009
[Satellite TODAY 12-11-09] Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and the U.S. Air Force completed ground testing on the second stage of Orbital Sciences’ Taurus 2 rocket motor at the Air Force’s engineering facility in Tennessee, Orbital announced Dec. 10.

Commercial Bus Rides: Fast Ticket to Space   Via Satellite   September 1, 2009
A U.S. Air Force technology program is scheduled to get new sensing technology in orbit within just two years instead of the typical seven. Separately, Australian Defense Force (ADF) officials estimate that taxpayers will save more than $100…