A leader of advanced technology within the global space industry, MDA Ltd. announced on June 7, 2022 that Lockheed Martin has awarded them a contract as part of the Space Development Agency (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) program.
MDA is an international space mission partner and a robotics, satellite systems and geointelligence pioneer with a 50-year story of firsts on and above the Earth.
MDA will design and build steerable Ka-Band, Link-16, and the satellite’s GPS antennas for the 42 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. These satellites are to be produced by Lockheed Martin as part of SDA’s T1TL constellation.
“We are proud to be expanding our relationship with Lockheed Martin by teaming up on this critical space security program. Our track record of designing and developing industry leading satellite constellations – including our previous work on SDA’s Tranche 0 Transport and Tracking system – combined with our state-of-the-art high-volume production facilities ideally position MDA to deliver multiple constellation missions for various applications,” said Mike Greenley, MDA’s CEO.
The SDA has also awarded Lockheed Martin one of three prototype agreements to build the T1TL – a mesh network of 126 optically-interconnected space vehicles that will provide a resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport system. The T1TL will be an integral part of the National Defense Space Architecture.
MDA will include the contract in its backlog in the second quarter of fiscal year 2022, with the projected completion date listed as 24 months after that.