The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded SpaceLink, a space technology company working in data connectivity, with a contract award for research and development activities.
Through the contract and as part of the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node endeavor, SpaceLink’s team will study and offer findings on the alignment of federal and commercial communications methodologies, especially in medium earth orbit, the Washington, D.C.-based company said Monday.
“DARPA’s vision of interoperability will unlock the value of the proliferating commercial remote sensing constellations for U.S. government agencies. We are gratified to share our technical insights with regard to command and control and API development,” remarked David Nemeth, SpaceLink’s senior vice president of systems engineering.
Nemeth also noted that the company is a good fit for the contract considering that the Space-BACN program overlaps with the SpaceLink objective of establishing unceasing high-capacity, real-time links for data transmissions from space to military personnel.
The company’s current major project is the construction of a constellation of MEO-range relay satellites intended to reciprocally network with earthbound users.
For the Space-BACN program, its team will collaborate with Parsons Corporation, integrating the latter organization’s enterprise scheduling and tasking software with its own optical relay network. The combination is expected to yield dynamically modifiable space-to-space optical communications terminals through which dialogue can be transmitted by and on a range of satellites and mediums.
Additionally, SpaceLink’s responsibilities under the DARPA contract include technical observations and analysis regarding Space-BACN Technical Area 3’s application program interface and algorithms. They will participate in simulation and testing that directly impacts the launch and implementation of the program’s reconfigurable optical communications terminals.
The DARPA contract win comes on the heels of SpaceLink entering into a cooperative research and development agreement with the Alabama-based U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Technical Center.
