SNC spacecraft production facility. Photo: SNC

[Via Satellite 10-15-2014] Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), manufacturer of Orbcomm’s Second Generation (OG2) satellites, has received a contract to build the STPSat 5 demonstration satellite for the United States military. NASA’s Ames Research Center awarded the contract.

The satellite is part of the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Space Test Program (STP), and will carry four scientific payloads into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The agency hopes to gather knowledge about the space environment in LEO for future space systems. SNC will build the satellite for a late 2016 launch.

STP is responsible for coordinating the delivery of all four payloads to SNC for integration. The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Command (SMC) manages STP, which has launched close to 150 experiments and demonstrations since it began.