Christine Thropp
Lockheed Martin has tapped Canadian space technology company MDA to design and develop antennas and related control electronics needed for the low Earth orbit satellites it is producing under a Space Development Agency program.
MDA said Tuesday it was awarded a contract that provides for GPS, Ka-Band and Link-16 antennas for 42 Lockheed satellites meant to join the SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation.
T1TL is envisioned to form a network of 126 space vehicles that are optically interconnected to enable low-latency, high-volume data transport communication. The system will become part of the National Defense Space Architecture.
Lockheed is among SDA’s awardees of prototype agreements to build up the program.
