Tuesday, October 6, 2020

SpaceX Wins Missile Tracking Contract

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has received a new, $149M contract to help develop new, missile tracking satellites for the U.S. Department of Defense, part of two contracts awarded by the DoD to improve its capabilities. SpaceX is reportedly looking to use the same base platform as it has been for Starlink for the satellite tracking. The award was through the Pentagon's Space Development Agency. The Defense Department also awarded a separate, $193M contract to another company, L3Harris, worth more than $193M, for parallel efforts. Both of the efforts are aimed at creating better ways to monitor for hypersonic missile launches. The award is the first for SpaceX for building satellites. The Elon Musk company is planning on ultimately launching nearly 12,000 satellites for its own broadband Internet network.