A Raytheon Technologies business has received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to commence Phase 3 activities under the Blackjack program and supply an additional set of satellites.

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Small satellite maker Blue Canyon Technologies has wrapped up a critical design review of its X-SAT Saturn-class satellite bus for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Blackjack program.

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Dr. Lisa Porter, former deputy undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense, has returned to the Riverside Research board of trustees, the company reported on Monday. Porter has nearly 25 years of experience in the defense and technology industries and is currently the co-president and co-founder of LogiQ.

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Labsphere, a New Hampshire-based photonics company, has unveiled a commercial satellite and airborne calibration network called Flare that will work to augment data fidelity from Earth-observing devices.

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A communications satellite SSL built for telecommunications firm PT Telkom Indonesia has started conducting post-launch maneuvers a day after its liftoff aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. Merah Putih released the satellite’s solar arrays and would fire its primary thruster to reach final orbit, SSL parent company Maxar Technologies said Tuesday. The system is designed to provide internet and telephone […] More

A communications satellite made by Maxar Technologies‘ SSL subsidiary for  Hispasat has been delivered to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where it will lift off aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket. SSL said Tuesday the Hispasat 30W-6 satellite will provide communications services for television, broadband, corporate networks and other telecommunications applications in Europe, North Africa and […] More

Northrop Grumman will allot $500,000 to fund seven research projects to be conducted at the Northrop Grumman Institute of Nanophotonics and Nanomaterials at the University of Southern California for 2016. Northrop said Tuesday it worked with USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering to select the projects three months after the partnership inaugurated the institute. The funded research efforts focus on black phosphorus, nonlinear crystalline […] More

The National Photonics Initiative High Power Lasers Task Force has released its recommendations to face what it forecasts as a decline in the U.S. HPL market ahead of the Directed Energy Summit in Washington Thursday. The recommendations look to establish a directed energy program office that will work to organize the manufacturing of high power lasers within the U.S., NPI said Thursday. NPI […] More

L-3 Communications will provide depot-level upgrade, repair and overhaul services for photonics masts on Virginia-class and Ohio-class submarines under a three-year, $44.7 million contract from the U.S. Navy. The Defense Department said Thursday the contract also covers engineering and technical support and the replacement, inspection and evaluation of the photonics mast and photonics mast variant, which are part of […] More

NASA has formed public-private partnerships with 19 companies for 22 research projects under two solicitations that seek to advance the development of new space platforms intended for human and robotic exploration missions. “These awards enable us to continue to foster partnerships with the commercial space sector that not only leverage capabilities to meet NASA’s strategic […] More

Northrop Grumman‘s Synoptics subsidiary unveiled its new titanium-doped sapphire offering, which is designed for use as material in short-pulsed laser devices, at the Laser World of Photonics event from June 22 to 25. Kevin Stevens, director for research and development of crystal growth at Synoptics, said in a statement released Monday that the Ti:Sapphire material works with lasers that have a wide tunability range. Northrop said […] More

IBM has developed and tested a silicon photonics chip designed to use tiny optical fibers and light pulses to move huge amounts of data between computing systems. The company believes its complementary metal-oxide semiconductor integrated nanophotonics technology could help industry manufacture optical transceivers capable of transferring information at 100 gigabits per second, IBM said Tuesday. […] More