The Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon’s commercial technology hub, plans to demonstrate low-cost, commercially derived missile defense sensors on orbit within the next two years, according to a new notice to industry.
SDA
The Space Development Agency wants to launch hundreds of satellites into low-Earth orbit over the next few years—and thanks to a new contract, it now has a way to get rid of some when their service life is over.
The Space Force’s Space Development Agency announced $3.5 billion in contract awards to four companies to build a total of 72 missile warning and tracking satellites—the largest deal to date for its low-Earth orbit constellation.
The final version of the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill calls for adding $1.2 billion to the Space Force’s research and development accounts, an increase that’s mostly split between two efforts: expanding the service’s low-Earth orbit data transport network and boosting its space-based missile warning ...
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government ...
Defense Department officials are engaged in “active debate” over the future of the Space Force’s data transport architecture and hope to have a decision on the way ahead in time for the fiscal 2027 budget’s release next year.
The Space Development Agency is still awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct Link 16 testing from its on-orbit satellites over U.S. airspace – a delay that could impede testing progress for its first batch of operational spacecraft.
Space Force Reinvents Part Time: Not Your Dad’s Guard & Reserve By Greg Hadley The Space Force revealed new details about its plan for part-time Guardians—and they aren’t like anything the military has seen before. Part-time service will be episodic, lasting...
The Space Development Agency is ready to start launching operational satellites—and launch and launch again over the next 10 months. Twenty-one of SDA’s low-Earth orbit satellites are scheduled to launch shortly after 7 a.m. Pacific time on Sept. 10. The...
Derek M. Tournear, the head of the Space Development Agency that spearheaded the trailblazing push to buy and launch small satellites at a speed and scale unseen in military space circles, is departing the organization for a job in academia just before a momentous launch.
While the U.S. and its allies up their efforts to build out multi-orbit, multi-constellation satellite communications that are harder for an enemy to disrupt, officials noted technical and cost challenges, particularly for the user in the field.
The long-term future of one of the Space Development Agency’s two satellite constellations is on hold as officials study the options for replacing a planned “data transport layer” with one or more commercial solutions. President Trump’s proposed 2026 defense budget...
