DIU awards 12 new contracts under combined space network portfolio

The Defense Innovation Unit awarded 12 new contracts for its project aimed at combining government and commercial space-related capabilities into one connected network, the agency announced yesterday.

The Hybrid Space Architecture (HSA) initiative, according to DIU, will build the technical and programmatic foundation to pilot an operational commercial and government space network by 2026.

The latest awardees include Capella Space Corp., EdgeCortix, Eutelsat America Corp. and OneWeb Technologies, Fairwinds Technologies and AST Space Mobile, Illumina Computing Group, Lockheed Martin Space, MapLarge, SES Space & Defense, Skycorp Incorporated, SkyFi, Ursa Space Systems and Viasat.

They’ll join existing HSA vendors SpiderOak Mission Systems, Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, Microsoft Azure Space, Aalyria, Anduril, Atlas and Enveil to prototype their capabilities in operational demonstrations across several combatant commands starting this summer and continuing through the next year.

“DIU partnered closely with the U.S. combatant commands to assess operational needs, prototype software architectures, and chart effective transition pathways,” the release said.

Areas of responsibility where operational demonstrations will take place include U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, European Command, Central Command and Southern Command, DIU said.

“Success with these demonstrations will be moving the department closer to realizing an operational, resilient and hybrid space architecture,” DIU said.