Astranis demonstrates GPS capability in race for Space Force contract

WASHINGTON — Astranis, a San Francisco-based manufacturer of small telecommunications satellites, announced it successfully demonstrated it can transmit GPS signals using its geostationary broadband communications satellite payload. The test, conducted at the company’s headquarters, positions Astranis as a contender in the U.S. Space Force’s Resilient GPS (R-GPS) program, a new initiative aimed at augmenting the existing GPS constellation with smaller, cost-effective satellites.Astranis is working under an $8 million U.S. Space Force contract for the Resilient GPS (R-GPS) initiative. The company is competing with L3Harris and Sierra Space for the next phase of the program when the Space Force is expected to select a vendor to deploy eight R-GPS satellites by 2028. As many as 24 R-GPS spacecraft could be acquired subsequently.The demonstration proved that Astranis’ technology is compatible with existing GPS user equipment, the company said March 4 in a statement. During the demonstration at its headquarters, Astranis used a flight-heritage software-defined radio — the same technology employed in its communications satellites — to transmit GPS waveforms. The positioning, navigation, and timing algorithms came from its partner and subcontractor, Xona Space Systems.Engineers transmitted a GPS civilian navigation signal through the Astranis payload and demonstrated signal acquisition and recovery of legacy navigation messages containing position, time, and other navigation- data using an off-the-shelf GPS receiver, the company said.Competitors in R-GPSNeither L3Harris nor Sierra Space have publicly announced comparable demonstrations of R-GPS capabilities. Sierra Space reported in January that its satellite design passed an early Systems Requirements Review. Meanwhile, L3Harris, a veteran in the GPS navigation payload market, is drawing on its experience with the U.S. Air Force’s Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), a next-generation PNT testbed designed to operate from geostationary orbit.Andrew Builta, vice president and general manager of surveillance systems at L3Harris’ space business, said NTS-3’s innovations — such as reprogrammable signals and enhanced power for targeted interference resistance — will inform the R-GPS program. Although NTS-3 was delivered to the Air Force more than a year ago, it has yet to launch due to certification- delays with United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.“The NTS-3 satellite has gone through vigorous testing and is ready to launch. That NTS-3 technology is really the basis and foundation for our R-GPS offering. Applying our technology from NTS-3 will add additional capabilities such as reprogrammability and focused increased power to benefit warfighters specifically,” said Builta.The Space Force envisions R-GPS satellites as a cost-efficient supplement to traditional GPS satellites. While they will lack some of the features of the full-scale GPS constellation, they are expected to provide essential GPS signals for both military and civilian applications. Traditional GPS satellites can cost between $200 million and $300 million each, while the more compact R-GPS satellites are expected to come in at a fraction of that cost — ranging from $50 million to $80 million each.Builta said L3Harris is currently working with the Space Force on design maturation and definition of requirements to meet the program’s schedule targets. He noted that R-GPS is a fast-moving program, operating at a much faster pace than most satellite programs. “We’re making very good progress in maturing our design and have a solid foundation of our baseline configuration going into the design review at the end of this current phase.”