SALT LAKE CITY – Northrop Grumman satellites are preparing for launch into the Pentagon’s first operational military data network in low-Earth orbit, U.S. Space Force Space Development Agency Director Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo said Aug. 24 at the Small Satellite Conference.
“I’m hoping that we can get the first plane of Northrop Grumman satellites up there in the next couple of weeks,” said Sandhoo, who is also the Space Force missile warning and tracking portfolio acquisition executive.
After a months-long pause, SDA is filling out the Tranche 1 Transport Layer, the communications backbone of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Two planes of York Space Systems satellites and one plane of Lockheed Martin spacecraft are in Tranche 1.
With its second plane, he said, York spacecraft performance improved significantly.
“What they learned from the first plane was critical for the second plane,” Sandhoo said. “On average, they were able to get things done about two to three times faster.”
Manufacturing at scale
In spite of the progress, SDA faces challenges as it turns from demonstrating key technologies to populating and operating constellations. Rapidly expanding manufacturing has been difficult due to supply chain constraints.
“It’s one thing to build three or four satellites and get into an assembly, integration and test campaign,” Sandhoo said. “To do that for a whole constellation is challenging. Companies are learning and adapting.”
Recent Space Force restructuring is also changing Sandhoo’s responsibilities. He is overseeing PWSA Tranches 1 and 2 in addition to directing future tranches of missile-warning satellites with sensors in low-Earth, medium-Earth, highly elliptical and geosynchronous orbit. The PWSA Transport layer will be managed by another portfolio acquisition executive.
Rapid growth
With the transition, Sandhoo said his organization is quadrupling in size, “if not more.” SDA has been focused on speed and agility with satellites designed to remain in orbit for five years. For the Space Force, missile warning and tracking is a “no-fail mission,” Sandhoo said.
How do those two mindsets, agility and guaranteed performance exist in the same organization? “On one hand, you’re building unmanned aircraft systems,” Sandhoo said. “On the other hand, you’re building 747s that have to last 35 years.”
For no-fail systems, components must be hardened to function for many years in orbit. Future missile warning and tracking constellations also will need to be sustained, Sandhoo added. Missile warning and tracking portfolio personnel will need to consider logistics, personnel and infrastructure required to maintain a constellation.