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SpaceX has won a lucrative contract to provide the US military with a way to share data from space, creating the “backbone” of a network rebuilt after the Pentagon’s efforts were halted, officials announced Tuesday.
Space Systems Command, the primary acquisition and procurement center for the Space Force, he announced The deal is worth $2.29 billion, confirming long-standing reports that the Pentagon could use SpaceX to build a new communications network in low-Earth orbit. SpaceX’s selection of the Space Data Network (SDN) Backbone contract “helps deploy a stable, high-speed network in space,” the Space Systems Command said.
The network will be based on technology originally developed for SpaceX’s Starlink spacecraft. SpaceX already builds and launches specially designed satellites, called Starshield, for military use. The SDN Backbone network in low-Earth orbit (LEO) must use the Starshield platform.
“This award will advance the network and satellites that are successfully connected to the world providing global communications,” the Space Systems Command said.
Col. Ryan Frazier, who is the Space Force acquisition chief for Space-Based Sensing and Targeting, said the networks “expand the best of the new business“And it will be a “great benefit and enabler” for the US military. The network “serves as the main communication component of the USSF’s combat systems, ensuring that our sensors and missiles are connected continuously, globally and securely,” Frazier said in a press release.
Change between
This may sound familiar for anyone who has kept up with the changes in the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency. Launched in 2019, SDA began deploying prototypes of a constellation of missile tracking and data relay satellites in 2023. The idea was to quickly acquire, develop, and deploy tracking satellites and data “transporters” every two years. SDA’s plan was to send a network across the entire US, using satellites and sensors made by many companies.
