Terran Orbital Completes Order for SDA Tranche 0 Transport Layer
Terran Orbital Corporation has delivered the last of ten satellite buses to prime contractor Lockheed Martin in support of the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 0 Transport Layer.
“The delivery of all ten Tranche 0 satellite buses marks a key milestone."
Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Marc Bell.
The delivery of the ten Tranche 0 buses proves Terran Orbital’s ability to build modules and deliver vehicles at scale – marking the company’s shift from lower quantity, mission-unique satellites to robust production. Terran Orbital delivered the satellite buses at a rate greater than one per week over an approximately six-week period.
“The delivery of all ten Tranche 0 satellite buses marks a key milestone, and we are excited to continue effective teamwork as Terran Orbital will also design and build the buses for Lockheed Martin’s SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites,” said Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Marc Bell. “We are always thrilled to work with Lockheed Martin and look forward to delivering the Tranche 1 satellite buses.”
Tranche 0 Will Support Military Operations
The Tranche 0 constellation, operating in low-Earth Orbit, will provide secure high-bandwidth, low-latency data links to enable the initial warfighting capability of the SDA’s National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA). This beyond-line-of-sight tracking, targeting, and communications will dramatically extend U.S. warfighting options and allow additional coalition and allied partners to eventually bring their capabilities into the network.
SDA’s Transport Layer will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms.
SDA’s Transport Layer is envisioned, modeled, and architected as a constellation varying in size from 300 to more than 500 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) ranging from 466 to 745 miles in altitude. With a full constellation, 95% of the locations on the Earth will have at least two satellites in view at any given time while 99% of the locations on the Earth will have at least one satellite in view. This will ensure constant world-wide coverage around the globe. The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. LEO orbits in conjunction with OISLs will reduce path loss issues but more importantly offer much lower latencies, which are deemed critical to prosecute time sensitive targets in today’s wartime environment.
(Source: Terran Orbital. Additional information provided by SDA. Images provided and from file)