A batch of 21 data transport satellites, the first built by Northrop Grumman, is scheduled to fly early on Oct. 5, the fourth mission in the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 build-out.
A Falcon 9 is due to lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base at 1:15 a.m. Pacific time on Oct. 5. The new arrivals join the 63 Tranche 1 spacecraft that York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin already have aloft across three orbital planes.
The mission makes Northrop the third vendor supplying the transport layer, the communications backbone of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. Agency director Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo told reporters the goal is a mesh that missile-tracking sensors will later plug into, relaying warning and targeting data to warfighters.
Survivability drives the design. Sandhoo said the architecture must hold enough capacity that adversaries cannot cripple US military communications by striking a handful of satellites. Regional coverage becomes constant once Tranche 1 wraps, and global reach is the target by the time Tranche 2 closes.
Transport is only one strand of the plan. A separate effort known as the Space Data Network would blend government and commercial satellites built by competing firms. Six more launches remain, split between the transport and tracking layers.
