Summary: The U.S. Space Force has initiated a strategic partnership with five space companies to develop a highly resilient, open-architecture Space Data Network. This effort focuses on utilizing on-orbit testing and standardized interfaces to seamlessly connect diverse commercial satellite systems into a secure, plug-and-play orbital mesh network that eliminates single-source dependencies and ensures uninterrupted global connectivity.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The U.S. Space Force has awarded complementary sets of fixed-price contracts and Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements valued at $12 million per set, to five companies as part of a deliberate acquisition strategy under the Space-Based Sensing and Targeting (SBST) Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE). This strategy is designed to evolve how the military procures and integrates satellite communication technologies.
In partnership with commercial and defense aerospace partners, these awards are the outcome of the SBST PAE and Space Systems Command (SSC) establishing the groundwork for a highly resilient, open-architecture Space Data Network (SDN).
The primary objective of this effort is to validate integration methodologies and demonstrate that diverse commercial systems can seamlessly connect to and transport, data across the core SDN system. By combining on-orbit testing of high-speed optical communications routing with rigorous physical, electrical, and data interface standards, the Space Force aims to build a repeatable, secure baseline which allows different commercial satellite offerings to contribute to the network.
"We have to break away from the old way of doing business, which too often locked the government into single-source vendors for decades," said U.S. Space Force Col. Ryan Frazier, acting Portfolio Acquisition Executive for SBST. "By investing in standardizedinterfaces 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.”
Transition to a Multi-Vendor Architecture
To transition to a fully diversified, resilient architecture, the Space Force is utilizing multi-vendor integration efforts to plan the onboarding of new providers. This approach requires deliberate planning, strategic investment, and deep cooperation across the industry to build the standardized physical and data interfaces, digital models, and security protocols needed to integrate new entrants.
To execute this transition, the SBST PAE leveraged the recently established Space Data Network consortium to competitively award five companies with a two-part complementary set of OTA agreements to form a unified strategy.
The first part focuses on demonstrating both ground-to-space and space-to-space data transport between vendor systems. To achieve this, five fixed-price contracts with a six-to-nine-month period of performance were awarded to prototype and demonstrate multi-vendor interconnectivity across the SDN Backbone. This will ensure diverse industry partners can seamlessly connect to and communicate with the core network infrastructure. These contracts will be valued at $10 million each.
The second part operationalizes these connections in orbit. To achieve this, five OTA agreements with a six-month period of performance were awarded to seed the development and fielding of Space Exchange Point (SEP) satellites. These specialized spacecraft act as orbital routers, allowing disparate networks and government satellite systems to connect directly to the SDN Backbone. These OTAs will be valued at $2 million each.
This SEP initiative lays a path to field prototype payloads from the multi-year, multi-vendor, Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) program, which designed optical terminals utilizing a government-owned communications standard suitable for low-Earth orbit (LEO) to geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) connectivity. By pairing commercial satellite bus providers with mature EST developers, the Space Force is establishing the repeatable technical baseline required to rapidly procure and field these critical nodes at scale.
The five companies selected were Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab and York Space Systems.
Shaping Future Acquisitions and Persistent Competition
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. 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.
"For SDN, we cannot afford to treat every new satellite like a custom science project built from scratch," said Space Force Lt. Col. Alexa Eggert, materiel leader, SBST SDN Backbone program. "We need to leverage mature commercial production lines that already know how to build at scale. This current integration work lets us burn down technical and onboarding risks in labs and small-scale prototypes, which will completely change the timeline and economics of how we will buy SDN space systems in the future.”
Through these efforts, the Space Force is establishing a resilient orbital mesh network. This infrastructure allows critical tactical data to be rerouted around localized interference or orbital threats, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity for global operators. Through this balanced approach of rapid near-term delivery and deliberate long-term standardization, the Space Force is demonstrating that persistent competition and open architectures are the most effective means to secure a dominant national space architecture.
About Space Systems Command
Space Systems Command is the U.S. Space Force field command responsible for acquiring, developing, and delivering resilient capabilities to outpace emerging threats and protect our Nation’s strategic advantage in, from, and to space. SSC manages a $15.6 billion annual space acquisition budget for the Department of War, working with joint forces, industry partners, government agencies, academia, and allied nations. For more information, visit ssc.spaceforce.mil and follow @USSF-SSC on LinkedIn.
Media representatives can submit questions for response regarding this topic by sending an e-mail to sscpa.media@spaceforce.mil.
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