Brenda Marie Rivers
The U.S. Air Force and L3Harris Technologies have launched a small satellite that will serve as part of a constellation intended to support end-to-end communications and on-orbit imaging operations.
L3Harris said Monday it is under contract to design, develop, produce and test the smallsats that feature reconfigurable payload elements as well as the company’s X-band reflector technology.
According to L3Harris, the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles Secondary Payload Adapter-class satellite system is intended to have a reprogrammable platform to support missions that change operations while in orbit.
The company will also command the satellites and facilitate on-board processing of imaging data as the prime contractor for the firm-fixed-price award.
Ed Zoiss, president of space and airborne systems at L3Harris, said the company and the Air Force had “pulled the pieces together†to execute the demonstration of the smallsat system.
L3Harris has been developing and supporting satellite missions as a supplier and provider of hosted payload over the past few decades, he noted.
