WHO WE ARE
The Space Development Agency orchestrates the development and fielding of DoD’s future threat-driven National Defense Space Architecture. SDA uses novel approaches to accelerate the military space capabilities necessary to ensure U.S. technological and military advantage in space for national defense.
CAPABILITY LAYERS
Date: May 6, 2020 | Outlet: Defense News | BY: Theresa Hitchens WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Mark Esper has ordered the military services to look to the Space Development Agency’s developing “data transport” satellites to connect their separate command and control systems for future all-domain operations, says SDA Director Derek Tournear. Speaking at a webinar…
Read Full StoryProposals are due by Noon EDT on June 1, 2020 The Space Development Agency (SDA) seeks proposals on their first Request for Proposal (RFP) to help build the Transport layer. Transport Tranche 0 is an interoperable mesh network of tens of satellites to provide periodic low-latency and high-capacity data connectivity. The agency plans to award…
Read Full StoryDate: April 22, 2020 | Outlet: C4ISRNet | By Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. Jack Reed, Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Mac Thornberry Right now, the coronavirus is rightly our country’s most immediate concern. But the Federal Communications Commission has used the crisis, under the cover of darkness, to approve a long-stalled application by Ligado Networks — a proposal…
Read Full StoryDate: April 18, 2020 | Outlet: CNBC.com | By Sarah Scoles In 2016 a Navy satellite called MUOS-5 wasn’t doing well. Partway to its intended orbit, it simply stalled out – but because the spacecraft was already so far away, the dilemma’s details were hard to discern. That’s where the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program…
Read Full StoryDate: April 2, 2020 | Outlet: SpaceNews | By Sandra Erwin SDA will issue a final solicitation for bids for the mesh network of satellites known as “transport layer” around May 1. WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency intends to select two or more companies later this year to design, build and test a mesh…
Read Full StoryDate: April 2, 2020 | Outlet: Air Force Magazine | By Rachel S. Cohen The Space Development Agency has released its draft request for proposals for an initial batch of 20 data-relay satellites known as the “Tranche 0 transport layer.” Pentagon officials see the transport layer as a way to unify the various space-based sensors that…
Read Full StoryDate: April 2, 2020 | Outlet: National Defense Magazine | By Mandy Mayfield The Space Development Agency plans to have the first constellation of tracking and communications satellites in low-Earth orbit by 2022, the agency’s director said April 2. The first step will be to a “tranche zero constellation,” Derek Tournear told reporters during a press…
Read Full StoryDate: February 13, 2020 | Outlet: Bloomberg Government | By Travis J. Tritten The military’s two-month-old Space Force is on trajectory for major growth but the Pentagon is still weighing an overhaul of how it buys and develops the hardware needed. Past programs have suffered from poor planning and bureaucracy amid threats from adversaries, lawmakers…
Read Full StoryDate: Jan. 21, 2020 | Outlet: National Defense Magazine | By Jon Harper The Space Development Agency released a broad agency announcement Jan. 21 for new technologies, and additional solicitations will be coming down the pipeline soon, the organization’s director told reporters. The SDA is charged with accelerating the development and fielding of cutting edge…
Read Full StoryDate: Jan. 22, 2020 | Outlet: Air Force Magazine | By Rachel S. Cohen The Space Development Agency in 2020 is embarking on its first full year of work to put up potentially thousands of satellites that aim to share combat data in new ways and better protect US interests. After standing up in March 2019,…
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