The Space Development Agency (SDA) has renamed its proliferated LEO constellation as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, or PWSA. Logo: SDA

Xenesis has won a new Phase 2 contract from the Space Development Agency (SDA) for optical communications terminals. This effort kicked off in December 2023 and is a follow-on effort from an initial Phase 1 award in August 2022 for Xenesis’ Adaptable Optical Satellite Terminal Concepts.

Xenesis announced the deal on Sept. 11. It is a 12-month project is set to take the optical terminal from a preliminary design stage to a conceptual design review with a TRL Level 5/6 in preparation for commercialization.

The terminal, dubbed the ‘Xen-Hub,’ is being built in accordance with SDA’s OCTv3.1 and the newly released OCTv4.0 standards, providing interoperability with other vendors’ optical terminals. SDA’s OCT requirements are a defense industry standard for wavelength, frequency, operating channels, modulation, and SWAP-C design considerations.

Xenesis and its partner Space Micro (now part of Voyager Space’s Technology Segment) will take the flexible Xen-Hub designed in Phase I for SDA, and develop its 10 Gbps bandwidth and tailor it to show compatibility with other 2.5 Gbps and below terminals allowing seamless communications between government and commercial satellites.

“It is an honor to have been selected for this partnership with the SDA especially in such an incredibly competitive space. We are working closely with our partner SMI/Voyager Space on building out our Xen-Hub as quickly and efficiently as possible to help accelerate timelines in support of SDA’s mission and goals to sustain resilient, low-latency, and inherently secure military space operations for U.S. national security,” Victoria Philip, chief of staff, Xenesis, said in a statement.