Matthew Nelson
A U.S. Air Force-sponsored consortium awarded Harris a potential $84M contract to manufacture an experimental satellite with position, navigation and timing functions.
Harris said Monday it will build, install and test the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 along with ground mission applications under the contract from the Space Enterprise Consortium.
NTS-3 is scheduled for a 2022 launch and intended to simultaneously transmit military and Earth coverage signals even in contested environments. The satellite will feature a timekeeping system for the operator to identify and address mission anomalies.
The company expects the satellite design to help accelerate the development and deployment of new waveforms for reprogramming and upgrade efforts throughout the system's life cycle.
SpEC is managed by Advanced Technology International and composed of industry-academic project teams that aim to develop space technology prototypes.
