The Space Force wants its future orbital internet to run on hardware from many builders, and it is spending $60M to prove the concept before the network goes live.
Five companies will get $12M each under other transaction agreements announced Aug. 13: Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab and York Space Systems. Their job is to show that satellites from different vendors can talk to each other and to the network’s core, testing optical laser terminals and router-style “Space Exchange Point” spacecraft along the way.
The Space Data Network is the service’s planned multi-orbit constellation for high-speed data transport and tactical communications across the joint force. SpaceX already holds a $2.29B contract, awarded in May, to field an operational prototype of the backbone by the end of 2027. That concentration of work in one company raised questions about competition, and the new awards are the service’s answer.
Col. Ryan Frazier, the acting portfolio acquisition executive for space-based sensing and targeting, said the service must move past procurement habits that locked it into a single supplier. The demonstrations also aim to establish physical, electrical and data interface standards so future commercial satellites can join the network securely.
Each vendor must field its own Space Exchange Point satellites as part of the effort, laying groundwork for a hybrid military-commercial constellation the service will manage for both enterprise and tactical traffic.
