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SwRI Secures $60M NASA Space Weather Program Contract
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SwRI Secures $60M NASA Space Weather Program Contract

The Southwest Research Institute, a nonprofit applied research and development organization, has booked a $60 million contract with NASA to build critical components for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Next program.

Expectations of the NASA Contract

The San Antonio, Texas-based organization said Thursday the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract covers the development of three coronagraphs for the Lagrange 1 Series project. SwRI will execute the design, analysis, development and fabrication of the instruments. The contract also covers integration, testing, verification and evaluation of the coronagraphs.

SwRI will also provide launch support, supply and maintenance of ground support equipment and post-launch instrument operations support at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility.

The project will be conducted at the SwRI facility in San Antonio. It will run from November 2024 to January 2034. Two of the coronagraphs will be launched aboard a NOAA spacecraft while the third one will serve as flight spare. The launch of the second coronagraph marks the end of the contract.

What Are Coronagraphs?

Coronagraphs are instruments utilized by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center to gather critical data necessary for making forecasts, warnings and alerts. These instruments monitor the sun’s outer atmosphere and detect coronal mass ejections directed toward Earth. This allows early warnings for geomagnetic storms and gives time for public and private entities to protect their assets.

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ARPA-E Seeks to Accelerate Industrial Catalyst Development
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ARPA-E Seeks to Accelerate Industrial Catalyst Development

The Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy recently announced a new program called Catalytic Application Testing for Accelerated Learning Chemistries via High-throughput Experimentation and Modeling Efficiently, or CATALCHEM-E.

Objective of CATALCHEM-E

The program seeks to create workflows that accelerate the discovery and development of industrial catalysts, which have historically required sophisticated and time-intensive processes, ARPA-E said Thursday. Catalysts are a kind of substance used to transform raw materials into various commodities, including aviation fuel.

Innovation Using AI, Automation

To achieve its goal, the program intends to use artificial intelligence and machine learning in tandem with high throughput experimentation platforms like autonomous laboratories. The target is to bring down the time it takes to produce new catalyst materials from 10 to 15 years to 12 to 18 months.

Notice of Funding Opportunity

ARPA-E has issued a notice of funding opportunity for CATALCHEM-E. $35 million is being allocated for the effort. Interested parties have until Dec. 17 to submit concept papers.

The full application submission deadline has yet to be determined.

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DOD Selects Last Awardees for $60M Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program
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DOD Selects Last Awardees for $60M Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program

The Department of Defense has selected the last nine awardees for the Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program, which aims to boost U.S. bioeconomic strengths and help the DOD generate more sophisticated defense capabilities.

The chosen bioindustrial companies include Amyris, Cauldron Molecules, Checkerspot, DSM Nutritional Products, EVERY Company, The Fynder Group, Liberation Labs, Perfect Day and Solugen. They will receive funding to develop business and technical plans for building domestic bioindustrial manufacturing production facilities, the DOD said Thursday.

Preparing for New Industrial Revolution

According to Heidi Shyu, the under secretary of research and engineering at the DOD, the selected firms will advance the U.S. objective of establishing a network of large-scale production facilities to fortify the country’s chemical supply chain and prepare the U.S. bioeconomy for expansion. “The next industrial revolution will be a biomanufacturing revolution,” the Wash100 Award recipient noted.

Bioindustrial Manufacturing Facilities

Under the program, the companies will submit proposals under the Defense Industrial Base Consortium other transaction agreement, a contract vehicle supervised by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy. Following evaluation, the proposed projects could receive up to $100 million in funding to construct bioindustrial manufacturing facilities in the United States.

The latest awardees will join the 25 companies selected earlier for the initial stage of DBIMP investment worth more than $60 million.

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USSF Launches Space Strategic Technology Institutes
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USSF Launches Space Strategic Technology Institutes

The U.S. Space Force has launched the Space Strategic Technology Institutes, dubbed SSTIs, and is seeking industry input on organizations interested in participating in the initiative.

Space Force’s Request for Information

According to a notice issued on SAM.gov, the SSTIs are part of efforts of the In-Space Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing National Strategy to tackle challenges in space science and technology through a network of partnered universities.

The USSF posted a request for information to identify universities and other organizations that will collaborate and conduct joint applied research as part of the SSTI. At least two cooperative agreements will be awarded by the military branch. However, the USSF may decide to make a single award or none at all.

Goals of Partnership

The selected organizations will conduct research focused on developing transformational space domain technologies with the goal of enhancing capabilities that can be leveraged for future USSF and government space capabilities.

The SSTIs will prioritize research and development that will create testbeds, high fidelity modeling and simulations, demonstrations and prototypes. They should develop scalable technologies that can be transitioned to to higher readiness levels during the course of the potential contract.

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Defense R&D Summit and gain firsthand insights from leading defense researchers, experts and decision-makers. Register now!

USSF Launches Space Strategic Technology Institutes
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New NRL Robotics Suite to Service Orbiting Satellites
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New NRL Robotics Suite to Service Orbiting Satellites

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Naval Center for Space Technology has finished developing an advanced robotics suite that can service orbiting satellites.

Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites Integrated Robotic Payload aims to advance efforts to design, build, integrate and test new satellite servicing capabilities, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.

Advanced Space Capability

According to Bernie Kelm, head of the spacecraft engineering division at NRL NCST, the RSGS program involves the creation of spaceflight hardware and software to improve satellite servicing operations. He added that the new space capability will support inspection, orbital adjustment, hardware upgrade and repair of commercial and government satellites to extend their service life.

Repairing and Upgrading Space Assets

If successful, the program would allow the U.S. government to repair and upgrade satellites in deployment, leading to significant savings. Glen Henshaw, a senior scientist for robotics and autonomous systems at NRL, noted that RSGS will demonstrate that expensive U.S. space assets can be serviced using capable robots.

NRL recently completed the thermal vacuum testing phase of the robotic payload, which involved exposure to on-orbit temperature and vacuum conditions similar to space. During the testing process, engineers checked the payload’s key components and verified its operational and communication functions and robotic compliance.

The payload was delivered to Northrop Grumman for integration with its Mission Robotics Vehicle. After its scheduled 2026 launch on the MRV spacecraft bus, the suite will go through initial checkout and calibration in preparation for operational servicing missions.

National Security and Civil Applications

The robotic payload will ideally enable the RSGS program to realize its vision of transforming satellite operations in geostationary orbit, reducing costs for satellite operators and enabling new capabilities for national security and civil applications, NRL Director of Research Bruce Danly said.

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FAA Forming Committee to Weigh on Part 450 Licensing Rule Update
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FAA Forming Committee to Weigh on Part 450 Licensing Rule Update

The Federal Aviation Administration will establish a committee that will perform spaceflight-related studies to recommend changes to the Part 450 launch and reentry licensing rule.

Members of the commercial space industry and academia are invited to join the Aerospace Rulemaking Committee, with the group’s initial meeting expected to be held in the first week of December, the FAA said Thursday.

The committee will focus on flight safety analyses, system safety and means of compliance, among other topics, and submit a report on its recommended Part 450 rule changes by late summer 2025 to inform the agency’s future rulemaking actions.

According to Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, updating the licensing rule will foster more clarity, flexibility, efficiency and innovation and ensure licensing decisions will not compromise public safety.

Increasing Commercial Space Operations

The planned update comes as the FAA reported granting licenses to 148 commercial space operations in fiscal year 2024, up more than 30 percent compared to FY 2023. By FY 2028, the agency expects to issue permits to more than twice the current number of licensed spaceflights. 

The FAA is also working to improve its internal processes through other projects, including exploring tools that can automate license application submission and evaluation.

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GAO Report Tackles Restrictive Vendor Licensing Practices
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GAO Report Tackles Restrictive Vendor Licensing Practices

The Government Accountability Office has released a report regarding a review it conducted about the effects of restrictive software licensing and vendor practices on federal agencies working to migrate their data and software to the cloud.

Scope of the GAO Review

The review covered six agencies, namely the Departments of Justice, Transportation and Veterans Affairs; NASA; the Social Security Administration; and the Office of Personnel Management. The agencies were randomly selected.

The review process involved interviewing IT and acquisition officials from the agencies. The process also looked into 11 cloud investments within those agencies and relevant policies and documentation concerning the management of restrictive licensing practices.

Impacts of Restrictive Vendor Practices

According to the report, all the agencies, with the exception of OPM, were impacted by restrictive vendor practices. The negative practices described by the agencies include vendors requiring the repurchase of the same licenses to allow for their use in the cloud; the charging of various additional fees, including for the use of a vendor’s software on a competitor’s cloud service; and encouraging ways of using software, data or cloud services that effectively promoted vendor lock-in.

These practices were found to result in increased costs or limited cloud service or architecture choices.

Shortcomings of the Agencies

The report noted, however, that the agencies inconsistently implemented two key industry activities meant to manage the impacts of restrictive vendor practices. The first activity involves identifying and analyzing the possible impacts of such practices while the second activity involves developing plans to mitigate the impacts. The agencies either partially implemented the activities or failed to demonstrate that either activity was fully implemented.

The report attributes these shortcomings to the agencies’ failure to fully assign the responsibility of identifying and managing restrictive practices, which the agencies did not consider to be a priority in the first place.

GAO called on the agencies to not only assign someone to be responsible for managing the impacts of restrictive vendor practices but also update and implement relevant guidance, particularly when it comes to the effects on cloud computing efforts.

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Shift5 Joins Forces With Carahsoft to Offer OT Platform
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Shift5 Joins Forces With Carahsoft to Offer OT Platform

Shift5 has partnered with Carahsoft to offer its operational technology platform to Department of Defense customers and state and local transportation agencies.

Carahsoft will make Shift5’s onboard data collection, access and analysis capabilities for OT available through its reseller partners and contract vehicles, Shift5 announced Thursday.

Carahsoft President and ten-time Wash100 Award recipient Craig Abod said, “By combining Shift5’s expertise in OT cybersecurity, predictive maintenance, and compliance for cyber-physical systems with Carahsoft’s offerings, distribution capabilities, and reseller network, we can provide comprehensive protection against emerging threats.”

The Shift5 Platform

The Shift5 platform aims to access the entire ecosystem of onboard data for operations, maintenance and cybersecurity teams, which allows for real-time decision intelligence from the asset level to the fleet scale.

Josh Lospinoso, CEO and co-founder of Shift5, said, “To maintain superiority, our military and commercial operators must be enabled with situational awareness to make decisive, real-time decisions.”

The platform reportedly organizes onboard data developed by commercial and defense fleets. It is deployed by leveraging existing onboard computing services or optional, field-tested, technology readiness level-9 hardware. The platform also supports four modules, including cybersecurity, predictive maintenance, compliance and GPS integrity.

Shift5’s Work With U.S. Service Branches

Through the collaboration with Carahsoft, numerous service branches will continue to gain access to Shift5’s platform. In November, the company received a spot on a potential $975 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office to advance the development of military operational services using the platform.

Shift5 also partnered with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in May to improve the MQ-9A reaper using the company’s platform. The initiative aimed to advance mission readiness and cyber survivability for the U.S. Special Operations Command and Air Force Special Operations Command.

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DOD Selects Additional Capabilities for Replicator Initiative
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DOD Selects Additional Capabilities for Replicator Initiative

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks has announced new capabilities for the Replicator program, including air and maritime systems and applications to enhance the program’s systems’ autonomy and resilience.

The capabilities will advance the Pentagon’s objective of equipping warfighters with all-domain attritable autonomous systems by August 2025. They will focus on the scalable production of class-leading systems across multiple domains and critical enabling software, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.

Accelerated Development of Warfighting Capabilities

Replicator enables traditional and nontraditional defense and technology companies to deliver critical capabilities to U.S. warfighters, according to Hicks.

“The Replicator initiative is demonstrably reducing barriers to innovation and delivering capabilities to warfighters at a rapid pace,” the multiple Wash100 Award recipient added.

Additional Systems for Replicator 1.2

Replicator’s second tranche includes Anduril Industries’ Ghost-X and Performance Drone Works C-100 unmanned aerial systems, which will allow the U.S. Army to conduct reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition missions with reconfigurable, attritable and modular payload capabilities.

Under the initiative, the DOD also selected Anduril’s Altius-600 for the U.S. Marine Corps to complement AeroVironment’s Switchblade-600 loitering munition that was part of the initial Replicator tranche. The selections enable the USMC to test systems that deliver organic, loitering and beyond-line-of-sight precision strike capability.

In addition, the department will work with Anduril, Integrated Solutions for Systems, Leidos Dynetics and Zone 5 Technologies to prototype the Air Force’s enterprise test vehicle. The companies will demonstrate design variants and the selected ETV prototypes will be accelerated for scaled production.

The DOD selected other systems for Replicator 1.2, such as low-cost long-range strike capabilities and maritime uncrewed platforms, but they remain classified.

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Space Systems Command’s Tetra-1 Satellite Concludes Mission
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Space Systems Command’s Tetra-1 Satellite Concludes Mission

The Tetra-1 satellite of the U.S. Space Force’s Innovation Development Branch—a function of Space Systems Command—has completed its mission after two years of service.

The SSC said Tuesday the Tetra-1 satellite, launched on Nov. 1, 2022 will now transition to residual operations after helping over 250 U.S. Space Force Guardians, airmen and operators. The satellite was utilized for experimentations and training with different techniques and procedures in geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO.

The Tetra-1 Satellite

The Tetra-1 satellite, the first Tetra small satellite, was developed by Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing subsidiary, and fielded by the Innovation Development Branch of SSC’s Innovation and Prototyping Directorate. It was launched into GEO in less than 18 months.

The satellite enabled SSC to utilize non-traditional vendors for on-orbit capabilities. It also allowed space operators to understand how to operate and manage small satellites, which can be potentially used for future GEO missions.

The Tetra-1 was utilized for SCARLET STAR, a testing and training campaign conducted by the 98th Space Range Squadron and 57th Space Aggressor Squadron of Space Training and Readiness Command. The campaign assessed the three USSF field commands’ abilities to coordinate during multiple live on-orbit events.

Tetra-1 Satellite Post-Mission Life

After 18 months, Tetra-1 will now serve as a test bed to determine the lifespan of satellite components.

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