While GEOST has made infrared sensors for classified systems in the ones and twos, the new contract will involve building infrared sensors designed to be used in a larger constellation, LightRidge CEO Bill Gattle told Breaking Defense.
The O3b mPOWER medium-Earth orbit constellation enables nations to maintain control and autonomy over their space networks and safeguard national security, and to establish sovereign communications capabilities without relying solely on the government-proprietary satellite systems.
"The key word here is persistence," study author Masao Dahlgren told Breaking Defense. "How do we get persistence over the regions we care about? That hasn't been as explicitly put into prior work until now. This report puts into sharp relief."
Numerous, redundant satellites in low Earth orbit will link the new Marine Littoral Regiments to joint commanders, allowing them to serve as the eyes and ears of the joint force in the Pacific, said Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy.
Russian and Chinese anti-satellite tests are responsible for "pretty much 20 percent" of "conjunction" warnings, that is predictions that two space objects are likely to collide, in 2022, said the State Department's Eric Desautels.
A pair of studies, one from the Secure World Foundation and one from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, examine the state of play as nations search for ways to keep each other from dominating the heavens.
"As the United States leads the world in the exploration of the Moon and Mars, maintaining U.S. preeminence in space research is important as the use of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) grows and the development of space enters a new era," states the new national strategy for LEO R&D.
The bulk of SDA's FY24 request, some $4.1 billion, is in research, development, test and evaluation aimed at getting the first iterations of its planned satellites for both data relay, called the Transport Layer, and missile warning and tracking, called the Tracking Layer, into orbit.
"And as weird as that sounds, you know, from an industry guy, I absolutely need regulation and enforcement," said Tory Bruno, CEO of rocket maker ULA. "Because one bad actor can ruin that entire common environment for all of us."
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 Defense.