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Tag: USSF

  • General Atomics Awarded U.S. Space Force Contract for Phase 2 of the Enterprise Space Terminal Program

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    SAN DIEGO, May 8, 2025 (Newswire.com)
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    General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) for Phase 2 of the Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) program. This Phase 2 contract award was issued through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) via an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA). The EST program is an enterprise optical communications solution to enhance mission effectiveness by providing resilient, high-capacity communication solutions for Department of Defense (DoD) space platforms operating primarily in beyond Low Earth Orbit (bLEO) regimes at crosslink ranges from 10,000 to 80,000 kilometers while maintaining the ability to operate in the LEO regime.

    “GA-EMS, under a Phase 1 contract award, leveraged its extensive Optical Communication Terminal (OCT) expertise to develop a design that can be efficiently scaled to deploy a mesh network enterprise of OCTs with capabilities to transfer large volumes of data between spacecraft and ground stations distributed across a wide spectrum of operational domains,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “We are excited to enter Phase 2 to advance our system design and begin the build and test of the OCT subsystems.”

    Phase 2 will include lab demonstrations of OCT subsystems within a government provided test bed. GA-EMS will continue design and analyses activities to optimize the system designs. Testing results and analyses will then be presented during a Critical Design Review (CDR) at the end of Phase 2 period of performance.

    “The Phase 2 CDR will help inform the decision gate toward entering Phase 3 of the program, which will call for the assembly, test, and delivery of an integrated prototype OCT system for demonstration on a government provided test bed,” said Gregg Burgess, vice president of GA-EMS Space Systems. “We look forward to delivering a robust, producible Optical Communication Terminal for the Space Force to ensure resilient space network connectivity for future National Security Space Architectures.”

    GA-EMS completed the preliminary design of the payload support system, electrical hardware, laser terminal design, optical design and subsystem, thermal control, and command and data handling under the EST Phase 1 contract awarded in 2024. As prime contractor, GA-EMS has teamed with L3Harris for the modem subsystem and Advanced Space to provide performance modelling.

    Source: General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems

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  • Cambrian Works Awarded SpaceWERX Orbital Prime Contract for Space Operator Robotic Terminal Interface & Environment (SORTIE)

    Cambrian Works Awarded SpaceWERX Orbital Prime Contract for Space Operator Robotic Terminal Interface & Environment (SORTIE)

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    Cambrian Works has been awarded a Phase 1 STTR under the SpaceWERX Orbital Prime Program

    Press Release
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    Jan 9, 2023 09:00 EST


    RESTON, Va., January 9, 2023 (Newswire.com)
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    Cambrian Works and SRI International announce they have been selected by SpaceWERX for an STTR Phase I in the amount of $250K to investigate how Cambrian Works’ Iris, a space software-defined network product, in conjunction with SRI’s dexterous robotics capabilities, would enable In-space Service Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) capabilities being explored by the Department of the Air Force (DAF) and United States Space Force (USSF) through the Orbital Prime program. Orbital Prime was created to accelerate the commercial ISAM market toward a use case of Active Debris Remediation. The Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through a faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and removing bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering ‘The Open Topic’ SBIR/STTR program in 2018, which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded. On Aug. 17, 2022, Cambrian Works started a new branch of its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.

    About Cambrian Works, Inc.

    Cambrian Works, founded in 2020 to develop foundational technologies and infrastructure for the emerging space economy, currently focuses on interoperable space software-defined networking, a real-time, digital constellation twin for system development and operations, tele-operated dexterous robotics for In-Space Assembly and Maintenance (ISAM), and electro-adhesion for confident management of resident space objects (RSOs). Cambrian Works’ products are a combination of leading-edge development and adaptation of commercial off-the-shelf products for the space environment. An example of Cambrian’s development of human engagement with on-orbit activity is using always-on, Cambrian-enabled extensions of the internet into space coupled with robotics partnerships to normalize terrestrial tele-operation and tele-surgery in space. www.cambrianworks.com

    About SRI International

    SRI International creates world-changing solutions that make people safer, healthier and more productive. SRI is redefining the robotics design space through solutions for collaborative automation, dexterous tele-manipulation, healthcare automation, service robots and micro-scale assembly platforms. For more than 40 years, SRI has been at the forefront of robotics R&D, from applied research through the design of advanced prototypes and product development. www.sri.com

    About SpaceWERX

    SpaceWERX is the Space component of AFWERX (a program office at the Air Force Research Laboratory – AFRL) which connects innovators across government, industry, and academia through innovation and collaboration with the United States’ top subject-matter experts and harnessing the power of ingenuity of internal talent, by expanding technology, talent, and transition partnerships for rapid and affordable commercial and military capability. Additional information is available at: https://www.spacewerx.us/.

    About SpaceWERX Orbital Prime

    SpaceWERX Orbital Prime leverages a diverse industry partnership engagement strategy to identify nascent space technology sectors that, if “primed,” could advance U.S. national security and economic prosperity. Prime engagement is not limited to government investment, but also allows SpaceWERX to address key policy concerns as well as offer testbeds and platforms to advance capabilities. The first Space Prime effort, Orbital Prime, will invigorate the In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) market using Active Debris Remediation (ADR) as a use case for the foundational technologies. Learn more at https://spacewerx.us/space-prime/.

    Source: Cambrian Works, Inc.

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