Leidos, a Fortune 500® science and technology company, announced the successful completion of the Lonestar tactical space support vehicle’s on-orbit demonstration. Lonestar, a technology demonstrator designed to provide space-based situational awareness directly into the hands of the tactical warfighter, launched on July 1, 2022, from the Mojave Air and Space Port. The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (USASMDC) originally scheduled the tactical space support vehicle’s (TSSV) demonstration for only one year, but after seeing how successful the TSSV performed, they gave it six extra months to gather vital data and more key observations.
“Lonestar completed all of its on-orbit checkouts in the first 30 days,” said Jonathan Pettus, Aerospace, Civil and Defense operations manager for Leidos Dynetics. “It quickly met key technology objectives once on orbit, and we are proud to have been a part of developing this important demonstration vehicle for our Army customer. Its work will carry us into the next phase of important satellite payload and algorithm development.”
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Lonestar successfully demonstrated new technology for GPS interference warning and utility for tactical users and made multiple new observations that were shared with the PNT Situational Awareness community, which includes the Defense and Intelligence sectors of government and other federal agencies. It was even endorsed by the Space Development Agency (SDA) as a pathfinder for providing critical data on the requirements of navigation capabilities for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
Lonestar’s on-orbit satellite and payload operations were supported by USASMDC’s payload development laboratory at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The laboratory provides ground systems for command and telemetry to the satellite.
Leidos‘ Dynetics team was awarded the Lonestar contract in 2018. The Huntsville-based group developed, tested, integrated and delivered the TSSV through the Design, Development, Demonstration and Integration (D3I), Domain 1 task order for $8.8 million. Leidos’ expertise in space systems and high-performance signal processing applications enabled rapid development, including the utilization of hardware-in-the-loop testing and simulation to verify the payload mission software would operate as expected once in flight.
SOURCE : PRNewswire