Pentagon Wants to Build One Satellite Per Week – By Marcus Weisgerber (Defense One) / Jan 21 2020
Over the next two years, the Space Development Agency is looking to put dozens of satellites into orbit.
One satellite per week. That’s what the Pentagon wants industry to provide under its plans to orbit seven new constellations — each with a different function — by the end of 2020.
The satellites would be smaller (“a few hundred kilograms”), cheaper (about $10 million each), and shorter-lived (about five years) than today’s typical military satellites, which can weigh tons and consume billions of dollars but which are expected to operate for decades.
“We are talking [about] technology that is available to fly within 18 to 24 months,” Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, said during a Tuesday briefing at the Pentagon.
Dubbed the National Defense Space Architecture, the program is the first big initiative of Tournear’s brand-new agency. It aims to orbit “several dozen satellites” through 2022, and then keep going, launching dozens of additional satellites every two years, he said.
The initial NDSA satellites would improve the military’s ability to detect and strike objects like surface-to-air missile launchers. Others would detect and track hypersonic missiles, and pass the data to earthbound missile interceptors.
Continue to article: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2020/01/pentagon-wants-build-one-satellite-week/162548/?oref=d-river
