Kent Lietzau, former vice president of strategy and business development at United Launch Alliance, has joined SEAKR Engineering as head of business development. He will oversee growth efforts across the space electronics manufacturing company's government, civil and commercial businesses, SEAKR said Friday.

The U.S. Air Force plans to award up to $750M in total funds for research and development of aircraft integration and virtual modeling systems.

United Launch Alliance has received a $98.5M contract to complete three Atlas V rocket launches for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. The company will continue and complete Atlas V launch activities that began under a previous contract, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded United Launch Alliance a $1.17B modification that increases the potential value of a contract for national security space launch support to $1.64B. ULA will help launch the National Reconnaissance Office launch five NSSL missions using the company's Delta IV Heavy rocket, the Department of Defense said Monday.

By Light Professional IT Services has agreed to buy Cole Engineering Services, a developer of simulation-based training platforms for military use. Both companies expect to close the transaction by the fourth quarter, pending approval by Cole Engineering's shareholders and regulatory clearances, By Light said Thursday.

Herndon, Va.-based LDRM has secured a potential five-year, $388.9M contract from the State Department to provide professional services and support digitization efforts for U.S. visa pre-processing activities, according to a FedBizOpps notice posted Friday.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has opened a facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., with the goal of helping customers test new space-based tools through realistic multidomain scenarios. “Pulsar Guardian reflects a new way for space operators to evaluate new systems, changes to existing ones, or train on the platforms they use every day,” said  Maria Demaree, vice president and general manager of mission solutions at Lockheed's space segment.

UES Inc. has won a potential eight-year, $90.3M contract to develop a technology for the U.S. Air Force identify molecular signatures of airmen performance.

Space robotics technology maker Astrorobotic has partnered with United Launch Alliance to help send a lunar lander to the moon sometime in 2021 using a ULA-built Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Sierra Nevada Corp. has tapped United Launch Alliance to provide launch services for its Dream Chaser spacecraft, which will perform six cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station for NASA.