The Space Development Agency at the Department of Defense (DoD) on May 26 announced the award of a $324.5 million contract to General Dynamics Mission Systems to “establish the ground Operations and Integration segment for Tranche 1 of the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA)” that eventually will feature a constellation of 166 satellites.
“This effort designs, develops, integrates, verifies and delivers integrated mission operations and support activities, including operation center sustainment,” DoD said in the contract announcement.
Chris Brady, President of General Dynamic Mission Systems, stated, “we are incredibly proud to bring our long heritage of mission-critical space and ground communications and networking expertise to the Space Development Agency.”
Iridium, General Dynamics Mission Systems and the U.S. government have a long and successful history of working together and partnering on this project and is a natural evolution of our relationship,” said Matt Desch CEO of Iridium, the satellite services provider that will also participate in the project.
The new SDA contract features a base amount of $162.9 million and $161.5 million in options.
