Case Study: How Optical Terminals Delayed a Defence Constellation
What happened to optical terminal supply for the Space Development Agency's Tranche 1, and what does it teach?
Chapter summary
the US Space Development Agency (SDA) designed its proliferated architecture around satellites that pass data to each other by laser, using a common interoperability standard so that terminals from different suppliers could link.
Key takeaways
- 1
Demand for terminals jumped from a few dozen to hundreds in a single tranche.
- 2
GAO reported in February 2025 that Tranche 1 Transport needed more than 500 terminals and had received 20 by January 2025; launches slipped from fall 2024 into 2025; tracking satellites flew with three terminals each instead of four; one supplier restructured and was acquired by a satellite maker.
- 3
The episode is the clearest public case of a single part setting the pace of a national programme.
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Optical Inter-Satellite Terminals
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