La Agencia de Desarrollo Espacial seleccion\u00f3 a SpaceX como el proveedor de lanzamiento de sus primeros 28 sat\u00e9lites, otorgando a la compa\u00f1\u00eda un contrato de\u00a0 US$ 150 millones. Se desarrollar\u00e1 entre septiembre de 2022 y diciembre de 2023. Formar\u00e1n una constelaci\u00f3n de sat\u00e9lite para proporcionar los datos en un formato que los militares est\u00e1n acostumbrados a ver en las l\u00edneas de tiempo t\u00e1cticas.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 The Space Development Agency selected SpaceX as the launch provider for its first 28 satellites, awarding the company a $150 million contract for two launches.<\/p>\n
SpaceX is expected to conduct the first launch in September 2022, according to the Dec. 31 contract announcement. All satellites need to be on orbit by March 31, 2023.<\/p>\n
The satellites will form the inaugural layers of the SDA\u2019s National Defense Space Architecture<\/a>, a proliferated constellation in low Earth orbit that will be able to push targeting data to war fighters, track hypersonic weapons connect sensors and shooters over an on orbit mesh network. While the NDSA will eventually include hundreds of satellites, the agency isn\u2019t putting them all up at once. Instead, it\u2019s using a spiral development approach. After the two SpaceX launches for the first tranche of satellites, the agency plans to add a growing number of satellites every two years.<\/p>\n Those first 28 satellites \u2014 20 data transport satellites and eight missile-tracking satellites \u2014 will form the \u201cwar-fighter immersion tranche.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIts goal is to provide the data in a format that the war fighters are used to seeing on tactical timelines that they can be expected to see once we actually become operational,\u201d SDA Director Derek Tournear told C4ISRNET previously. \u201cThe whole purpose of tranche 0 is to allow the war fighters to start to train and develop tactics, techniques and procedures so that they can create operational plans for a battle where they would actually incorporate these data.\u201d<\/p>\n The launch contract closes up a busy year for the agency, when it awarded contracts to four satellite manufacturers for its initial constellation. Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems<\/a> won contracts to build 10 transport layer satellites each, while the agency chose SpaceX and L3Harris<\/a> to build four tracking layer satellites each. Raytheon protested the latter two contracts<\/a>, and SDA says it is reevaluating proposals.<\/p>\n Each of the 20 transport layer satellites will weigh about 200 kilograms (440 pounds), according to the solicitation posted in October<\/a>. The tracking layer contracts are under protest, but the satellite designs submitted by SpaceX and L3Harris had vastly different weights. One vendor\u2019s satellites came in at approximately 1,068 kilograms (2,350 pounds) each, while the other vendor\u2019s space vehicles will be just 249 kilograms (550 pounds).<\/p>\n