{"id":91832,"date":"2026-11-05T18:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T10:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-awards-1-07b-in-ka-band-space-relay-contracts-to-viasat-ses-and-astranis\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T18:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T10:05:24","slug":"nasa-awards-1-07b-in-ka-band-space-relay-contracts-to-viasat-ses-and-astranis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-awards-1-07b-in-ka-band-space-relay-contracts-to-viasat-ses-and-astranis\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Awards $1.07B in Ka-Band Space Relay Contracts to Viasat, SES and Astranis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CLEVELAND \u2014 <strong>NASA has awarded contracts totaling up to $1.07 billion to Viasat, SES, and Astranis Space Technologies to develop commercial Ka-band space relay capability concepts, as reported on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. <\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"945\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/satnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/NASA_Awards_tdrs_satellite-e1649944056770-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-127667\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4765694076038904;width:749px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/satnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/NASA_Awards_tdrs_satellite-e1649944056770-1.jpg 945w, https:\/\/satnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/NASA_Awards_tdrs_satellite-e1649944056770-1-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/satnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/NASA_Awards_tdrs_satellite-e1649944056770-1-768x520.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 945px) 100vw, 945px\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Administered under the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program\u2019s Communications Services Project (CSP), the firm-fixed-price awards expand the space agency\u2019s operational path to transition low Earth orbit (LEO) mission communications from the aging government-owned Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) fleet to private multi-orbit networks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Transition Away from Legacy TDRS Infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The procurement represents a critical phase in NASA\u2019s multi-year effort to retire its government-operated constellation, an operational pivot detailed in earlier assessments of how NASA seeks commercial relays to replace aging TDRSS infrastructure. With legacy TDRS spacecraft approaching end-of-life, the agency is procuring commercial relay capacity to support science satellites, orbital observatories, and human spaceflight missions without requiring major redesigns of existing flight transceivers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The initiative builds on foundational demonstrations funded under CSP, including SES Government Solutions\u2019 initial CSP demonstration award and a recent milestone in which Viasat launched the Maxwell satellite to validate high-capacity space-to-space links.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Contract Ceilings and Orbital Architecture Diversity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Awarded under NextSTEP-3 Broad Agency Announcement Appendix E, the contracts span three distinct orbital regimes:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Viasat Inc. ($460.9 Million):<\/strong> Captures the largest individual allocation, designing high-capacity geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) relay architecture leveraging its high-throughput satellite fleet.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Global Enterprise Solutions Inc. \/ SES Space &amp; Defense ($340.4 Million):<\/strong> Establishes medium Earth orbit (MEO) relay capability concepts utilizing its software-defined O3b mPOWER constellation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Astranis Space Technologies Corp. ($264.3 Million):<\/strong> Introduces its proprietary dedicated MicroGEO satellite architecture to provide targeted, low-cost geostationary relay services.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Concept Maturation and Flight Demonstration Schedule<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the contract structure, all three contractors begin an initial six-month concept maturation phase extending from Nov. 4, 2026, through May 3, 2027. NASA holds priced options that can fund subsequent hardware fabrication and on-orbit flight demonstrations through 2029, establishing validated commercial space relays ahead of formal TDRS fleet retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CLEVELAND \u2014 NASA has awarded contracts totaling up to $1.07 billion to Viasat, SES, and Astranis Space Technologies to develop commercial Ka-band space relay capability concepts, as reported on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. Administered under the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program\u2019s Communications Services Project (CSP), the firm-fixed-price awards expand the space agency\u2019s operational path [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}