The U.S. Air Force has awarded Intelsat General a contract to perform a feasibility study to determine if commercial infrastructure can be used to manage a range of military and civil satellites.
Intelsat said Wednesday the AF Satellite Control Network Commercial Provisioning research’s goal is to help the service develop a plan to leverage commercial tracking, telemetry and command systems for government satellites.
“It is the objective of this study to determine possible methods of transitioning this requirement to the commercial sector to achieve cost efficiencies in the new budgetary environment, †said Kay Sears, Intelsat General president.
The company will collaborate with Braxton Technologies to complete the research within three months and offer a framework that could help the AF Space Command provision TT&C functions to industry within three to five years.
AFSCN consists of 15 ground TT&C terminals operated by defense and contractor personnel at seven locations worldwide, according to Intelsat.
