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Millennium Space Systems is building satellites for the Space Force’s resilient missile warning/missile tracking in medium-Earth orbit Epoch 1 program.
COLORADO SPRINGS—The U.S. Space Force plans to award the next contract for new missile-tracking satellites in medium-Earth orbit (MEO) about three months behind schedule.
The service’s Space Systems Command (SSC) expected to make awards for its resilient missile-warning/missile-tracking in MEO Epoch 2 constellation this past January, Col. Robert Davis, program executive officer for space sensing at SSC, said in an April 9 media roundtable.
But the service experienced some budget uncertainty prior to the March 18 passage of a full fiscal year continuing resolution. That uncertainty pushed the expected contract announcement back to “April or May” of this year, he said.
Epoch 2 is the next phase of the Space Force’s program to provide Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared capabilities via a multi-plane space segment in MEO, an integrated ground segment and constellation-level systems operations, SSC says. Millennium Space Systems is on contract to build 12 satellites in two planes under the program’s Epoch 1 contract, with a projected delivery date in 2026-27.
The Epoch 2 request for proposals was released Aug. 9. The solicitation included plans for up to 18 satellites that will build upon the current Epoch 1 contract. The government expects to award up to two firm-fixed price agreements, with one award per vendor.
Plans call for the MEO-based constellation to be fielded over the next six years via a spiral acquisition process that would put new capabilities into orbit every 2-3 years.
The Space Force launched the program to provide persistent tracking of modern asymmetric threats such as hypersonic glide vehicles being developed by Russia and China. The sensors in MEO would bolster constellations with similar mission sets in geostationary-Earth orbit and highly elliptical orbits, as well as low-Earth orbit.
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