The Space Development Agency has released a request for information on potential launch service providers that could help field satellites as part of the proposed National Defense Space Architecture.
NDSA is a proliferated space architecture composed of data transport and military sensing satellites in low-Earth orbit and the RFI posted Wednesday is for the Tranche 0 launch service program, which seeks to deploy up to 30 large satellites of four various types and includes separation and integration hardware, launch operations and payload integration support.
SDA’s Tranche 0 Space Vehicle manifest seeks to launch those spacecraft into two planes consisting of 15 satellites each.
Interested vendors should include in their responses a general description of their launch service, rough order of magnitude estimate for the launch service’s price and primary and secondary company point of contact that could offer comments or clarification if needed.
The agency intends to award the initial contract by the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 and expects the satellites to be launched by September 2022. Interested stakeholders have until June 5 to submit their responses to the RFI.
SDA issued a solicitation for the Transport Layer Tranche 0 program on May 1 and a draft request for proposals for Tracking Layer Tranche 0 Wide Field of View satellites on May 11.
