Jane Edwards
Leidos concluded the on-orbit demonstration of the Lonestar tactical space support vehicle designed to provide space-based situational awareness for warfighters.
Leidos said Tuesday its subsidiary Dynetics developed the Lonestar TSSV for the U.S. Army under a contract awarded in 2018.
Lonestar is a technology demonstrator launched by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in July 2022. The spacecraft was designed to perform a one-year demonstration but the service branch extended it for another six months to collect more data and conduct additional observations.
During the demonstration, the vehicle performed multiple observations that were shared with intelligence and defense agencies and other members of the positioning, navigation and timing situational awareness community. The vehicle also demonstrated technology for GPS interference warning.
“Lonestar completed all of its on-orbit checkouts in the first 30 days,” said Jonathan Pettus, aerospace, civil and defense operations manager at Leidos Dynetics.
“It quickly met key technology objectives once on orbit, and we are proud to have been a part of developing this important demonstration vehicle for our Army customer. Its work will carry us into the next phase of important satellite payload and algorithm development,” Pettus added.
