News

Date: May 8, 2025 | Outlet: Space News | By: Sandra Erwin WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is ramping up efforts to bring commercial technology into military systems, betting that private-sector speed and innovation can help modernize U.S. defense programs, especially in space. This push could increase the demand for so-called “mission integrators”—engineering firms that specialize…

Science Applications International Corp., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $54,908,584 cost-plus-award-fee contract for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche Three program integration effort. This contract provides for system engineering and integration support activities enabling the delivery of the tranche 3 space vehicles for transport, tracking, and custody layers and their integration within the proliferated warfighter space…

Date: March 3, 2025 | Outlet: Defense Acquisition University Magazine | By: Emily Ashcom and Benjamin Tyree Christopher Glista, Chief of Contracts for the Space Development Agency (SDA), is responsible for the daily operation of SDA’s contracting cell and advises agency leadership on acquisition planning and provides contracting support for SDA business operations. Under his…

Date: Dec. 6, 2024 | Outlet: FFI Norwegian Foreign Defense Research Establishment | By: FFI Staff Report ‘This is a game-changing capability, and we’re just getting started!’ says Major Tyler Levy at FFI, leader of a test where Norwegian F-35s and P-8s communicated over a Link 16 network via satellites in space. ‘The unique thing…

Date: September 4, 2024 | Outlet: Breaking Defense | By: Theresa Hitchens WASHINGTON — Space Development Agency (SDA) Director Derek Tournear announced today that the agency has successfully demonstrated the ability of its optical communications terminals to link satellites together — a capability that he has acknowledged as the longest pole in the tent for its planned mesh network…

Date: May 3, 2024 | Outlet: Payload | By: Jacqueline Feldscher A five-year-old agency within the Pentagon founded with a mandate to move quickly is stimulating investments that make the entire small sat industrial base more resilient and scalable, according to half a dozen top industry execs.  While the Pentagon is known for delayed timelines…

Date: August 14, 2023 | Outlet: Wired | By: Ramin Skibba FOUR YEARS AFTER it was formed, the US Space Force has begun deploying its first satellite network. For the military, it marks a significant shift from relying on a handful of powerful, expensive satellites to a swarm of smaller, cheaper ones. From the Pentagon’s perspective, they’ll be a…

Date: August 7, 2023 | Outlet: Grand Forks Herald | By: Korrie Wenzel GRAND FORKS — Sen. John Hoeven said the expansion of Space Development Agency operations at Grand Forks Air Force Base will put North Dakota “at the center of U.S. military operations” in the coming years. Hoeven, R-N.D., and others spoke Monday during…

Date: February 9, 2023 | Outlet: Space News | By: Sandra Erwin WASHINGTON — By requiring suppliers of laser terminals to comply with a common set of standards, the U.S. Space Development Agency has helped propel the industry forward, executives said Feb. 8 at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California.   The Space Development Agency…

Date: January 23, 2023 | Outlet: Breaking Defense | By: Theresa Hitchens The name change for SDA’s seven-layer network of satellite and ground systems was approved by both Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and space acquisition czar Frank Calvelli, and is designed to better reflect the network’s actual mission, SDA Director Derek Tournear told Breaking…