A relatively small company is getting a $32 million contract to develop sensors to help protect U.S. and allied satellites from Russian and Chinese spacecraft. The award that appears to exemplify the kind of transaction the Pentagon wants more of: affordable, innovative technology from companies, regardless of size.
Under the Space Force contract, which was awarded on Friday, Arizona-based Geost will finish building a prototype sensor that will monitor objects in geosynchronous orbit. The sensors will be attached to U.S. and possibly allied satellites.
“The government has identified a need for evolutionary or revolutionary space-based [space domain awareness] sensors to augment current and planned systems by providing frequent, timely, assured volume revisit of significant portions of the GEO belt with real-time or near-real-time downlink and processing of collected data,” an October federal contracting notice said of the new sensors.
