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NASA has awarded three companies contracts totaling a potential $1.065 billion to establish commercial global Ka-band communications assets to succeed the agency’s aging geosynchronous Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) network.
The selections were announced Nov. 4. The companies and their award limits are San Francisco-based Astranis Space Technologies Corp., $264.3 million; SES's Reston, Virginia-based Global Enterprises Solutions, Inc., $340.4 million; and Carlsbad, California.-based Viasat, Inc., $460.9 million.
Each firm-fixed price contract gives NASA the option to provide additional funding up to the award limits to advance from initial concept development and risk reduction to an orbital flight demonstration. The initial performance period extends through May 3, 2027, with additional priced options available to continue the effort through 2029.
“Facilitated through the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCAN) program’s Communications Services Project, this work supports NASA’s decision to gradually retire the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite fleet and adopt commercial services for future missions. In addition to the commercial capabilities currently under development by the program’s industry partners, Ka-band services are needed to support select in-orbit missions that cannot feasibly modify flight hardware or transition to noncompatible commercial services,” the announcement said.
Development of the TDRS network began in 1973 to provide continuous communications with NASA’s most critical low-Earth-orbit missions. The first TDRS satellite was deployed by a space shuttle crew in April 1983. Three generations of the TDRS communications satellites have been deployed over 1983 to 1995, 2000 to 2002 and 2013 to 2017.
Seven of the satellites are currently active and are to continue to support operations aboard the seven-person International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope until the network satellites are decommissioned. NASA announced on Nov. 8, 2024, that no new missions could be supported.
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