York Space Systems received two task orders — covering the interoperability demonstration and Space Exchange Point development — as part of a $60 million, five-company award to prototype and validate connectivity on the SpaceX-built SDN backbone.
Rocket Lab will manufacture a satellite bus based on its small-GEO platform for Viasat's prime contract on the Protected Tactical Satcom-Global program, deepening commercial industry's role in resilient military communications.
The contracts push Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, and York Space Systems to demonstrate that diverse commercial and defense satellites can plug into a single military backbone.
The new GHOST platform packages Electron and HASTE rockets into standard shipping containers, enabling responsive orbital and suborbital launches from virtually any location worldwide.
The second round of SB-AMTI contracts expands the Pentagon's push to build a space-based constellation capable of detecting and tracking airborne targets in contested environments.
