The Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) program is developing new navigation spacecraft for demonstrations in space.
L3 Harris will construct the NTS-3 spacecraft by changing the spacecraft bus.
Following L3 Harris’s work, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) tests the bus using the NTS-3 ground control and user equipment segments.
The spacecraft bus and the NTS-3P NT payload together form the NTS-3 spacecraft.
The Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) will be launched into geosynchronous orbit from Cape Canaveral in 2023.
Northrop Grumman Corporation delivered the NTS-3 satellite bus to L3Harris Technologies.
L3Harris Technologies will perform tests and integrate the NTS-3 PNT payload onto the bus to form the NTS-3 Spacecraft.
NTS-3 uses a unique acquisition model for the ESPAStar line to provide Northrop Grumman’s bus to another defense contractor for payload integration using standard interfaces.
The Air Force Research Laboratory will test the NTS-3 bus with the NTS-3 ground control and user equipment segments and perform integrated testing on the overall NTS-3 system architecture.
An ESPAStar bus has been built and delivered as a commercially-available commodity for the first time on the NTS-3 program.
NTS-3 is designed to demonstrate alternate positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities distinct from those provided by GPS.
L3Harris Technologies has received the NTS-3 satellite bus for spacecraft build and integration.
The experimental NTS-3 payload is designed to augment space-based position, navigation, and timing for warfighters and features a modular design capable of supporting a variety of mission needs.
The ESPAStar-D platform supports the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) mission for the Air Force Research Laboratory scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in 2022.
The NTS-3 launch delay is due to launch scheduling and results from NTS-3 being a rideshare with other United States Space Force customers, with AFRL not controlling the overall schedule.
The launch delay provides AFRL additional time to complete the NTS-3 ground system work.
L3Harris is building the 1,250-kilogram NTS-3 satellite under an $84,000,000 contract that AFRL awarded in December 2018.
The U.S. Space Force will take ownership of NTS-3 after AFRL completes the experiment and will integrate it into its regular set of capabilities.
Air Force Research Laboratory is planning a 2023 launch of the NTS-3 experimental satellite for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT).
NTS-3 could provide significant new secure PNT capabilities to supplement current GPS satellites that operate from medium Earth orbit.