SDA to host industry day for second set of experimentation satellites

The Space Development Agency will host an industry day next month for a pool of prime contractors and potential payload vendors for its second set of demonstration and technology satellites through its Hybrid Acquisition for Proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (HALO) effort.

SDA plans to release a prototype order for two space vehicles for its Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation program, called T2DES, according to a notice posted by the agency. The specific effort that will be described in the Feb. 10-11 industry day is dubbed Europa and will aim to demonstrate advances in radio-frequency communications technology.

Vendors in the HALO pool of prime contractors will be eligible for the program award but SDA will allow qualified mission payload vendors the opportunity to brief on their capabilities at the industry day. This is to “promote industry teaming and to maximize the quality of potential vendor submissions to this prospective [prototype order],” the notice states.

Vendors that could potentially be qualified to brief at the industry day include those with experience in payload missions and systems engineering, RF receiver signal processing, beamforming algorithm design and receive antenna array requirements.

The technologies demonstrated through T2DES Europa could inform requirements for SDA’s Tranche 3 Transport Layer.

SDA announced the initial 19 vendors for the HALO pool in October.