York to Build Satellites for SDA T1DES Program Under $200M Prototype Award

Denver-based York Space Systems has won a $200 million other transaction prototype agreement from the Space Development Agency to develop 12 satellites and supporting capabilities for the Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System.

The company will conduct experimentation and demonstrate Integrated Broadcast Service and tactical satellite communications capabilities from low-Earth orbit to augment the National Defense Space Architecture’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, SDA said Thursday.

“T1DES was a full and open competition and we determined that York provided the best value to government to deliver on-schedule, at an affordable cost, and meet our demonstration requirements,” said Derek Tournear, director of SDA and a previous Wash100 awardee.

Under the OTA, the vendor will develop, produce, test, perform launch integration and deploy T1DES space vehicles and ground systems.

SDA intends to field the T1DES satellites with the Tranche 1 Tracking space vehicles through four launches purchased through the second phase of the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch contract. The agency expects these launches to occur in fiscal year 2025.

SDA said all hardware and integration aspects for NDSA’s Tranche 1 are now in contract.

In February, York received a $382 million prototype agreement to develop and demonstrate satellites for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer. In August 2020, the company won a contract to supply space vehicles for the Tranche 0 Transport Layer.

The announcement of the award came days after private equity firm AE Industrial Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake in York.

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