General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) for Phase 2 of the Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) program.
This Phase 2 contract award was issued through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) via an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA). The EST program is an enterprise optical communications solution to enhance mission effectiveness by providing resilient, high-capacity communication solutions for Department of Defense (DoD) space platforms operating primarily in beyond Low Earth Orbit (bLEO) regimes at crosslink ranges from 10,000 to 80,000 kilometers, while maintaining the ability to operate in the LEO regime.
Phase 2 will include lab demonstrations of OCT subsystems within a government provided test bed. GA-EMS will continue design and analyses activities to optimize the system designs. Testing results and analyses will then be presented during a Critical Design Review (CDR) at the end of Phase 2 period of performance.
GA-EMS completed the preliminary design of the payload support system, electrical hardware, laser terminal design, optical design and subsystem, thermal control, and command and data handling under the EST Phase 1 contract awarded in 2024. As prime contractor, GA-EMS has teamed with L3Harris for the modem subsystem and Advanced Space to provide performance modelling.