The U.S. Space Force announced Friday it has awarded satellite contracts with a combined value of about $1.6 billion to Rocket Lab in Long Beach and to the Redondo Beach Space Park campus of Northrop Grumman.<\/p>\n
The contracts by the Space Development Agency<\/a> will fund the construction by each company of 18 satellites for a network in development that will provide warning of advanced threats such as hypersonic missiles.<\/p>\n Northrop Grumman has been awarded contracts for prior phases of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a planned network of missile defense and communications satellites in low Earth orbit. <\/p>\n The contract announced Friday is valued at $764 million, and the Falls Church, Va. company is now set to deliver a total of 150 satellites for the network.<\/p>\n The $805-million contract awarded <\/a>to Rocket Lab is its largest to date. It had previously been awarded a $515 million contract to deliver 18 communications satellites for the network.<\/p>\n Founded in 2006 in New Zealand, the company builds satellites and provides small-satellite launch services for commercial and government customers with its Electron rocket. It moved to Long Beach in 2020 from Huntington Beach <\/a>and is developing a larger rocket.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is more than just a contract. It\u2019s a resounding affirmation of our evolution from simply a trusted launch provider to a leading vertically integrated space prime contractor,\u201d said Rocket Labs founder and chief executive Peter Beck in online remarks<\/a>.<\/p>\n The company said it could eventually earn up to $1 billion due to the contract by supplying components to other builders of the satellite network.<\/p>\n Also awarded contracts announced Friday were a Lockheed Martin group in Sunnyvalle, Calif., and L3Harris Technologies of Fort Wayne, Ind. Those contracts for 36 satellites were valued at nearly $2 billion. Lockheed Martin said the work would be split between its California site and Denver.<\/p>\n Gurpartap \u201cGP\u201d Sandhoo, acting director of the Space Development Agency, said the contracts awarded \u201cwill achieve near-continuous global coverage for missile warning and tracking\u201d in addition to other capabilities.<\/p>\n