The Space Development Agency has issued a draft request for proposals for a program to provide demonstration and experimentation capabilities for the first tranche of the National Defense Space Architecture’s transport layer.
The Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System seeks to supplement the Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellite constellation using beyond line of sight command and control infrastructure and low latency data transfer to deploy and link additional spacecraft with various mission payload configurations, according to the draft RFP posted Friday.
SpaceNews reported that SDA plans to procure 18 satellites for the T1DES program that will be deployed in a single plane approximately 600 miles above Earth and could select up to three contractors to build the space vehicles and acquire launch services by 2025.
SDA said it expects the optical communications terminals, ground system operations, networking, data routing and related components of T1DES space vehicles to be compatible to that of T1TL satellites.
T1DES spacecraft will host payloads that will be built, sourced or offered by an external mission partner through the Partner Payload Program and will be fielded into a separate orbital plane through launch services that the T1DES program contractor will procure.
Interested stakeholders seeking to view the draft statement of work and technical requirements document should send an email to the Pentagon.
Responses to the draft solicitation are due Nov. 8.
SDA solicited proposals for the T1TL program in August.
