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MDA Selected By Lockheed Martin for Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer Constellation

June 16, 2022

MDA Selected By Lockheed Martin for Space Development Agency's Tranche 1 Transport Layer Constellation
The antennas will be built, assembled and tested at MDA’s state-of-the art high volume satellite production facility in Montreal

Contract will see MDA design and build antennas and control electronics for 42 low Earth orbit satellites.

MDA Ltd., a leading provider of advanced technology and services to the rapidly expanding global space industry, recently announced it has been awarded a contract from Lockheed Martin as part of the Space Development Agency (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) program. 

MDA will design and build antennas and antenna control electronics for the 42 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to be produced by Lockheed Martin as part of SDA’s T1TL constellation. This includes steerable Ka-Band and Link-16 antennas, as well as the satellites’ GPS antennas.

“We are proud to be expanding our relationship with Lockheed Martin by teaming up on this critical space security program,” said Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA. “Our track record of designing and developing industry leading satellite constellations – including our previous work on SDA’s Tranche 0 Transport and Tracking system – combined with our state-of-the-art high-volume production facilities ideally position MDA to deliver multiple constellation missions for various applications.” 

Lockheed Martin was recently awarded one of three prototype agreements by the SDA to establish the T1TL, a mesh network of 126 optically-interconnected space vehicles that will provide a resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport communication system as part of the National Defense Space Architecture.

The contract will be added to the company’s backlog in the second quarter of fiscal 2022, with the work expected to be completed over the next 24 months.

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