Every Cosmic Herald story on Space Development Agency — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
Five days after an automated abort, a Falcon 9 lifted 21 Northrop Grumman Transport Layer satellites from Vandenberg on Oct. 10. That brings the Space Development Agency to 84 of the 126 data-relay satellites planned for Tranche 1, with five of nine launches still to go.
Read the story →SpaceX called off the Space Development Agency's T1TL-A launch of 21 Northrop Grumman data-transport satellites in the final minute of Monday's count at Vandenberg, and the next try is set for Thursday, Oct. 8.
SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and ten other contenders have passed Gate 1 of the Pentagon's space-based interceptor competition, but officials warn the $185 billion Golden Dome missile shield could stall as soon as October without new funding.
A July 16 Falcon 9 lofted 21 York-built data-transport satellites for the Space Development Agency, resuming Tranche 1 flights after a roughly nine-month pause — and York confirmed contact with all 21 within hours, pushing the on-orbit count to 63.
SDA launched 21 more York-built data-relay satellites after a nine-month pause to fix on-orbit software and hardware issues, bringing half of its 126-satellite Tranche 1 Transport Layer into orbit even as GAO warns the program may not deliver capability on schedule.
L3Harris and Sierra Space will build 36 new missile-tracking satellites for $1.75 billion, pushing the Space Development Agency's Tranche 3 constellation to 104 spacecraft in support of the Golden Dome missile-defense architecture.
The Space Development Agency awarded L3Harris and Sierra Space a combined $1.75 billion on July 13 to build 36 missile-tracking satellites for Golden Dome's Tranche 3, targeting launch by the end of 2028.
York Space Systems' Dragoon satellite ran five successful two-way UHF tactical-comms demos from low Earth orbit, and coverage indicates the SDA is trimming its satellite buy — reportedly canceling 11 — on the strength of the result.
When a Starlink outage last August left Navy unmanned surface vessels bobbing uselessly off the California coast, it crystallized a strategic anxiety the Pentagon had been managing quietly: the U.S. military is profoundly dependent on a commercial satellite network it does not own or control.
The Space Development Agency is building a mesh network of hundreds of small military satellites in low Earth orbit — a fundamentally different approach to space-based command and control than anything the US has operated before.
GPS III, Next Gen OPIR missile warning satellites, and the Evolved Strategic SATCOM program are replacing Cold War-era systems that have been showing their age. The upgrades are designed to survive a contested space environment that didn't exist when the original satellites were built.
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