“Profound” acquisition method can be used across the board, Space Development Agency director says
Date: January 2, 2022 | Outlet: Government Matters The Space Development Agency (SDA) is called the Defense Department’s constructive disruptor for space acquisition, delivering space-based capabilities to the warfighter quickly. Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency at the Defense Department, said his organization uses the spiral development model, delivering “good enough” capabilities every…
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The SpaceNews Awards 2021: Meet the nine winners
Date: December 6, 2021 | Outlet: SpaceNews | By: SpaceNews Staff SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY When the Pentagon created the Space Development Agency in 2019 to stake out a new satellite architecture for the military, SDA chose as its motto Semper Citius, Latin for “always faster.” In less than three years since its inception, the SDA has launched…
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SDA to Provide Virtual Industry Presentation (CUI level) on Tranche 1 Operations and Integration
Requests Due By: December 7, 2021 SDA will deliver a CUI-level virtual industry presentation on Friday, December 10, 2021. This presentation will focus on the anticipated solicitation for the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA) Tranche 1 Operations & Integration. SDA will also offer one-on-one meetings by request with companies intending to propose as prime contractors (up to 18 meetings will be accommodated). Below…
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Space Development Agency launches experimental infrared sensor into orbit
Date: August 11, 2021 | Outlet: Defense News | By: Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency launched another experimental satellite Aug. 10 as it tries to reduce risk for its first satellites on orbit, set to begin launch in fall 2022. Carried into orbit aboard the Cygnus NG-16 spacecraft during its Commercial Resupply…
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Aboard Commercial Rocket, Space Defense Agency Sends Up Satellites for First Time
Date: June 23, 2021 | Outlet: DOD News | By: C. Todd Lopez The Falcon 9 mission will include five SDA satellites. These include a pair of “Mandrake II” satellites; two “Laser Interconnect Networking Communications System,” or LINCS, satellites; and a satellite carrying the SDA’s Prototype On-orbit Experimental Testbed, or POET, experiment. The SDA is…
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Space Development Agency Successfully Launches First Missions
Date: June 30, 2021 The Space Development Agency today announced the successful launch of its first two satellite missions, Mandrake II and Laser Interconnect Networking Communications System (LINCS) and the Prototype On-orbit Experimental Testbed (POET) payload, on June 30 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. The launch, supported by SpaceX’s Transporter 2, an all-rideshare…
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US Military Places a Bet on LEO for Space Security
Date: June 2021 | Outlet: Via Satellite | By: Vivienne Machi U.S. Defense Department agencies are working with a who’s-who of military contractors, commercial satellite operators, and technology companies to finally demonstrate the feasibility of a proliferated constellation of satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). The concept of using hundreds of small satellites spread out across…
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On-Time Delivery Top Priority at Space Development Agency
Date: May 7, 2021 | Outlet: DOD News | By: C. Todd Lopez Cost, performance and delivery drive acquisition across the Defense Department, typically in equal measure. But the Space Development Agency has prioritized delivery above all else in its effort to get satellites into space that will deliver non-line-of-sight targeting to warfighters across the…
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What focus areas are key to America’s future space capabilities?
Date: April 28, 2021 | Outlet: Defense News | By: Tate Nurkin It has been an active start to 2021 for the Department of Defense’s space activities as the Pentagon seeks to build agility, capability and resilience in this increasingly important domain. Increased concentration on space is welcome. However, Pentagon decisions about future priorities, activities…
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SDA Outlines Missile Tracking Satellite Plan
Date: April 16, 2021 | Outlet: Air Force Magazine Online | By: Amanda Miller The Defense Department’s Space Development Agency wants to blanket Earth with a constellation of low-cost, open-architecture data-relay and missile-tracking satellites whose sheer numbers, along with their 1,000-kilometer-high orbits, would theoretically thwart some modes of interference—but not all.
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‘Warfighter Council’ Guides Capability Development for Space Development Agency
Date: March 4, 2021 | Outlet: DOD News | By: C. Todd Lopez As the Space Development Agency builds out the National Defense Space Architecture, it looks to a biannual “warfighter council” to provide guidance about what is actually important to those who will use the systems, the agency’s director said today. “We want to make…
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EXCLUSIVE – SDA, NRO Mull Direct Satellite Links to Speed Imagery To Warfighters
Date: February 16, 2021 | Outlet: Breaking Defense | By: Theresa Hitchens WASHINGTON: The Space Development Agency (SDA) and the builder and operator of America’s spy satellites, the NRO, are discussing how to move imagery more rapidly from spy satellites to warfighters for targeting, SDA Director Derek Tournear tells me. The two agencies are…
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SDA Releases Six Small Business Opportunities
Original Response Date: March 31, 2021 SDA is issuing six Small Business Opportunities (SBO) under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, inviting submissions of innovative research proposals supporting the advancement of the National Defense Space Architecture. These six SBOs are issued under the SDA Broad Agency Announcement for…
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Direct From SmallSat Symposium, Dr. Derek M. Tournear, Director, Space Development Agency, Keynote Address
Date: February 11, 2021 | Outlet: SatNews I’m excited to talk about the Space Development Agency and what we have done over the past year and our year term and long term visions. I want to talk about the many products that we’re developing and delivering, so SDA is set up to exist and operate…
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SDA Awards Launch Contract to SpaceX
Date: December 31, 2020 Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX), Hawthorne, California, has been awarded a $150,450,000 firm-fixed-price contract for launch services from Vandenberg Air Force Base for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 Transport and Tracking Layer space vehicles. This award was made based on the Tranche 0 Launch request for proposal (HQ085021R0001) released Oct.…
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How The Pentagon’s True Space Maverick Became The Soldier’s Best Friend
Date: December 21, 2020 | Outlet: Forbes | By: Charles Beames This past week, the United States Space Force turned one year old. In the months leading up to the anniversary, the infant military branch started to form an image all its own. In July, the newly instituted Space Force unveiled its logo and new…
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What’s With All the U.S. Space-Related Agencies?
Date: December 14, 2020 | Outlet: DOD News | By: C. Todd Lopez For centuries, the U.S. military has fought wars on land and sea. For that, America has the Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps. Then, in 1909, the U.S. Army bought America’s first military aircraft with a $30,000 contract awarded to the…
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Space Agency Hopes to Gain Industry’s Trust With Proliferated Satellite Marketplace
Date: December 7, 2020 | Outlet: DOD News | By: C. Todd Lopez The National Defense Space Architecture will include hundreds of satellites in orbit around earth dedicated to gathering targeting and tracking information and instantly transmit it to war fighters. Getting the defense industry on board with this, means gaining their trust. Part of…
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Podcast: Interview With Space Development Agency Director
Date: November 10, 2020 | Outlet: Aviation Week Network | By: Jen Dimascio, Steve Trimble, and Lee Hudson Space Development Agency (SDA) director Derek Tournear joins Aviation Week editors on Check 6 to discuss how its system of space tracking and transport satellites will revolutionize the U.S. military and the challenges it will face along the…
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Gotta go fast: How America’s Space Development Agency is shaking up acquisitions
Date: November 9, 2020 | Outlet: C4ISRNet | By: Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — In March 2019, the Pentagon established a new organization to buy space systems: The Space Development Agency. But this led to some confusion. After all, the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center already bought the bulk of the military’s satellites…
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