WHO WE ARE
Speed. Delivery. Agility.
Recognized as the Department of Defense's constructive disruptor for space acquisition, the Space Development Agency (SDA) will quickly deliver needed space-based capabilities to the joint warfighter to support terrestrial missions through development, fielding, and operation of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. SDA capitalizes on a unique business model that values speed and lowers costs by harnessing commercial development to achieve a proliferated architecture and enhance resilience. SDA will deliver a minimum viable product - on time, every two years- by employing spiral development methods, adding capabilities to future generations as the threat evolves.
CAPABILITY LAYERS
Date: August 17, 2022 | Outlet: Kratos Constellations Podcast At the recent Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat) in Logan, Utah, Space Development Agency (SDA) Technical Director, Dr. Frank Turner, spoke about the importance of the SDA’s National Defense Space Architecture Transport Layer to Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JACD2). While at SmallSat, Dr. Turner also spoke…
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Date: July 19, 2022 | Outlet: The Washington Post | By: Karoun Demirjian The Pentagon this week said it reached important new milestones as it scrambles to catch up with China and Russia in what has become a fraught arms race between the world’s most advanced militaries, conductinga successful hypersonic missile test and securing a…
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Date: July 18, 2022 | Outlet: Associated Press | By: Lolita C. Baldor WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will spend $1.3 billion to develop advanced satellites that will be able to better track hypersonic missile threats, the Pentagon said Monday, announcing two new contracts that will put the detection and tracking systems in orbit by…
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Date: July 18, 2022 | Outlet: DOD News National Defense Space Architecture Tracking Layer Accelerated WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Space Development Agency (SDA) today announced the award of two prototype agreements with a total potential value over $1.3 billion for the establishment of the Tranche 1 (T1) Tracking Layer, providing the initial missile warning/missile tracking…
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General Dynamics Mission Systems (CAGE 1VPW8) of Fairfax, Virginia is awarded a contract in the amount of $324,516,613 ($162,954,122 Base + $161,562,491 Options) to establish the ground Operations and Integration (O&I) segment for Tranche 1 of the National Defense Space Architecture. This effort designs, develops, integrates, verifies and delivers integrated mission operations and support activities,…
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Date: May 19, 2022 | Outlet: Gizmodo | By: Passant Rabie Two satellites recently exchanged more than 200 gigabits of data over a distance of about 60 miles (100 kilometers) using laser communication in space. The achievement sets the stage for yet another satellite constellation. Satellites generally don’t communicate directly with each other. Instead, they…
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Date: May 19, 2022 | Outlet: GovConWire | By: Summer Myatt U.S. space agencies are prioritizing “integration by design” with mission partners, industry, academia and allied forces to tackle threats and deter adversaries in the largest and most highly contested domain today. Gen. James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Command said the “partnered element”…
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Date: February 28, 2022 SDA has awarded three protoftype agreements worth approximately $1.8 billion to establish the foundation for Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL), a mesh network of 126 optically-interconnected space vehicles (SV) that will provide a resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport communication system, and ready for launch by September 2024. These agreements are awarded…
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Date: February 10, 2022 | Outlet: Breaking Defense | By: Theresa Hitchens WASHINGTON: A foundational effort to test software for the Space Development Agency’s planned National Defense Space Architecture satellites successfully has wrapped up an initial demonstration of an on-board, automated data fusion capability, agency and industry sources said. On-board, or “edge,” processing — rather than being done at…
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Date: January 12, 2022 | Outlet: Air Force Magazine | By: Amanda Miller A satellite constellation specially suited to tracking hypersonic missiles could be up and running by 2025. Director of the Space Development Agency Derek M. Tournear laid out the advantages of the Tracking Layer of SDA’s still-envisioned National Security Space Architecture in a…
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