Mary-Louise Hoffman
Terran Orbital has shipped the 10th hardware that Lockheed Martin will integrate into small satellites for an optical crosslink mesh network demonstration with the Space Development Agency.
The satellite bus delivery marks the completion of an order for Tranche 0 of the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer constellation, Terran Orbital said Thursday.
SDA awarded Lockheed a $187.5 million contract in August 2020 to manufacture 10 of the 20 satellites required to test interoperability and connectivity across warfighting domains.
The agency intends for its Tranche 0 constellation to operate in low Earth orbit and provide an intersatellite link system for the National Defense Space Architecture.
Boca Raton, Florida-based Terran Orbital delivered the first Tranche 0 satellite bus to Lockheed in May and completed all the deliveries over a period of approximately six weeks.
