Space Force taps 5 companies for Space Data Network connectivity demos

The Space Force’s acquisition arm has contracted five vendors to demonstrate that its future mega-constellation can effectively share information between systems owned by different companies.

Each contractor will receive $12 million under a set of other transaction authority agreements that will fund work for two related efforts, Space Systems Command announced Thursday. Together, the deals are intended to lay the groundwork to field optical laser communication terminals for the service’s planned Space Data Network (SDN) architecture.

The five companies selected are Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab and York Space Systems — all of which are part of the Space Force’s SDN industry consortium.

The contracts are the latest for the service’s Space Data Network program, a multi-orbit satellite constellation that is expected to provide high-speed data transport and tactical communications to the entire joint force.

In May, the Space Force awarded SpaceX a $2.3 billion contract to deliver a fully operational prototype of the SDN’s “backbone” — enabling backhaul communications across the Defense Department —  by the end of 2027.  

The service wants to field the Space Data Network as a hybrid architecture, comprising both military-owned and commercial payloads built by different companies. The new prototyping and demonstration deals are intended to validate the Space Force’s multi-vendor approach, according to Col. Ryan Frazier, acting portfolio acquisition executive for space-based sensing and targeting.

“We have to break away from the old way of doing business, which too often locked the government into single-source vendors for decades,” Frazier said in a statement. “By investing in standardized interfaces now, we are creating a clear runway for any capable and innovative company to come in and compete. It keeps the playing field level and ensures we can constantly bring the best commercial technology to our missions.”

One of the OTAs given to the five vendors is valued at $10 million with a period of performance of six-to-nine months, according to SSC. Under the effort, the five companies will demonstrate ground-to-space and space-to-space data transport across multi-vendor systems to “ensure diverse industry partners can seamlessly connect to and communicate with the core network infrastructure,” SSC said in a statement.

The second agreement will operationalize multi-vendor connectivity on orbit. According to the service, the $2 million OTA will provide the five companies with seed money to develop and field space exchange point (SEP) payloads.

Also known as “translator satellites”, SEPs essentially act as orbital routers and will allow different networks and satellites to connect directly into the Space Data Network’s backbone. 

The initiative enables the Space Force to field other prototypes developed under the Enterprise Space Terminal program, which developed critical optical communication terminals for its planned hybrid SATCOM architecture.

“The core objective of these combined investments is to ensure future communication payloads can integrate seamlessly with competing spacecraft buses, eliminating the need for costly, custom redesigns,” SSC said in a statement. “By establishing and operationalizing these interface standards early, the Space Force is laying the foundation for a plug-and-play environment which lowers the barrier to entry for proven and innovative commercial baselines.”