The Pentagon Gives SpaceX a New Order. It Wants the Company to Connect Two Military Satellites Through a Laser Link

  • One satellite is manufactured by York Space Systems, and the other is produced by SpaceX. Both will be able to communicate in space.

  • Both satellites are part of the Department of Defense’s PWSA constellation.

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Matías S. Zavia

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Aerospace and energy industries journalist. LinkedIn

The Department of Defense wants to utilize the satellite constellation technology developed by SpaceX for military purposes. Instead of depending on a few large satellites, which has been the traditional approach, the Pentagon is taking steps to implement a distributed network of small spacecraft that can communicate with one another.

A warfighter space architecture. This initiative is part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a network of satellites designed by the Space Force. Its goal is to enhance military communications and improve the DOF’s missile tracking capabilities.

The initial phase of the PWSA, known as Tranche 0, consists of 27 satellites operating in low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 620 miles. Similar to SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, the Space Force satellites are equipped with laser terminals for inter-satellite communication. This arrangement allows any satellite to relay information back to ground stations, even if it’s located on the opposite side of the world.

First inter-vendor demonstration. Although the Pentagon’s PWSA satellites are part of the same constellation, they can be produced by different companies. The crucial part is that they should be able to communicate. In fact, two Pentagon contractors recently demonstrated communication technology between satellites.

On Jan. 9, aerospace company York Space Systems announced that one of its Tranche 0 satellites successfully transmitted data for the first time to another Tranche 0 satellite developed by SpaceX. York sent the data using a Tesat-Spacecom laser terminal, while SpaceX utilized its in-house developed terminal for commercial satellites to receive the information.

An extensible constellation. According to a statement from York, the goal of PWSA, operated by the Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA), is to create “an extensible and proliferated constellation [of satellites] built by multiple vendors to a common interface standard.”

As this is a military constellation, neither York Space Systems nor the SDA has disclosed technical details about the demonstration. However, the communication technology involved is expected to resemble what SpaceX typically uses for communication between its Starlink satellites. Additionally, SpaceX has integrated laser terminals into its Crew Dragon spacecraft, enabling it to broadcast high-resolution video in real time. The company showcased this capability during the Polaris Dawn mission, where engineer Sarah Gillis played the violin live for an orchestra on Earth.

Image | NASA

Related | NASA Wants to Collect Samples From Mars Before China. It’s Considering Using SpaceX’s Starship for the Task

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