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Space Force awards up to $60 million to five companies to test interoperable satellite network

The U.S. Space Force is funding five companies to demonstrate interoperability across commercial satellite systems for its open-architecture Space Data Network, whose proliferated low-Earth-orbit backbone is being supplied by SpaceX. Separately, Impulse Space received a $28 million SBIR Phase III extension supporting two VICTUS SALO missions.

Discovered 2026-08-13T05:33:32.160524-07:00 | 2026-08-13T05:33:32.160524-07:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

The awards make interoperability a defined acquisition requirement for the Space Data Network, testing whether satellites from different vendors can share information across a military communications architecture.
The five-company demonstration effort is valued at up to $60 million, while Impulse Space’s separate $28 million contract extension supports the VICTUS SALO 2 and 3 missions.
The program combines a SpaceX-supplied proliferated LEO backbone with multiple commercial providers, signaling a distributed, open-architecture approach to resilient military space communications.

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