All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The Space Development Agency will retain its existing authorities to select contractors and hire staff after the realignment.
The Space Development Agency is ramping up procurement of satellites for its low Earth orbit Transport Layer Tranche 1 constellation to provide communications services to the military.
Under the planned realignment, the Space Development Agency will be part of the Space Force but will not be merged under the Space Systems Command.
The Space Development Agency plans to launch its first batch of Transport Layer satellites this fall and to procure additional satellites.
The Space Development Agency was created in 2019 as a separate entity under the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
The Space Development Agency selected L3Harris in December 2020 to build and launch four space vehicles to demonstrate the capability to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
Congressional committees have raised concerns about overlap between the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer and the Missile Defense Agency’s HBTSS program.
The Space Development Agency in October 2020 selected L3Harris and SpaceX to each produce four satellites to demonstrate the capability to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
The Space Development Agency approved L3Harris’s satellite design for the Tracking Layer Tranche 0 constellation.
L3Harris received a $193,000,000 contract for the four SDA Tranche 0 satellites that are scheduled to launch in early 2023.
Honeywell is working with Skyloom to qualify laser communications terminals for the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency.
Honeywell and Skyloom are working with York Space Systems, which won a contract in 2021 to produce 10 spacecraft for the SDA Transport Layer Tranche 0.
The Space Development Agency plans to build a constellation of hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit that will be optically linked to other satellites, to ground stations, and to military aircraft.
The Space Development Agency plans to deploy a large network of communications and missile-warning satellites in low Earth orbit.
SDA intends to procure Tracking Tranche 1 space vehicles from up to two vendors.
SDA will start from Tranche 0’s Tracking requirements baseline and include targeted technology enhancements en route to a fully operational pLEO Missile Warning and Tracking Layer.
SDA plans to buy as many as 28 Tracking Tranche 1 space vehicles.
The Space Development Agency is working with the Missile Defense Agency on infrared sensor technology for detection of missile threats in low Earth orbit.
The Transport Layer constellation is also being built by the Space Development Agency.
The Space Development Agency planned to request funding for Tracking Layer Tranche 1 in fiscal year 2023.