SDA misses self-imposed deadline on orbital mesh network

Satellite internet communication to Earth from space. (Getty images)

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Space Development Agency ’s ambitious plan to create a satellite-to-satellite data relay network is now lag ging a year behind, SDA director G.P. Sandhoo revealed.

Just over six months ago , Sandhoo told the Satellite 2026 conference in Washington, DC that “we are about three months behind” on the orbital mesh network, but he hoped to start building it within six months. That self-imposed deadline expires in 10 days.

But Sandhoo said here on Tuesday that that SDA wasn’t going to make it. In fact, he now doesn’t expect to start for another three months at least. All together, that pushes the total expected delay to at least a year.

“We have not started yet,” the SDA director told reporters bluntly at the AFA 2026 conference. “We are behind on that. We should be there already.”

“I push on the team every week. … The next step is to get that done,” he continued. “In the next three to four months, that’s the number one priority for us.”

The network is such a high priority because it’s needed to streamline data transfers across SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PSWA) , meant to encompass hundreds of satellites providing missile warning, tracking, and fire control. To do that, the network will allow satel lites to transfer d ata directly to each other — instead of having to relay signals through ground stations — using laser beams instead of radio waves.

There have been “multiple issues,” Sandhoo said, but one of them is just getting sufficient numbers of the high-quality optical components required. The “optical heads” have to be finely engineered enough to send and receive clear signals, he explained, yet robust enough to survive being launched into orbit.

The problem is literally rocket science — plus supply chain logistics.

SDA used firm fixed price contracts to keep costs down for the initial group of PWSA satellites, Tranche 1, Sandhoo explained. But all of those contracts ended up going with the same supplier for Optical Communication Terminals (OCTs).

“That vendor is having issues with throughput and not able to deliver,” he said.

“I have not seen the improvement that I wanted to see … in Tranche 1,” the director continued. “With Tranche 2, we have done some risk mitigation.” The plan is to create “a parallel path … so you have options later in the design” to swap in OCTs from another supplier.

In the longer term, the Space Force has even bigger ambitions for its PWSA satellites, Sandhoo said. That includes adding edge computing and artificial intelligence to the satellites so they can digest vast amounts of data in orbit, conserving space-to-earth bandwidth and speeding the flow of priority data.

“We plan to leverage all of that as we get into this,” Sandhoo said, “But we are not going to start with transformative AI. … We’ve still got to get the satellites up first.”

Theresa Hitchens contributed to this article.

从太空向地球发送卫星互联网通信。（盖蒂图片社）

马里兰州国家港——美国太空发展局局长GP Sandhoo透露，该局雄心勃勃的卫星间数据中继网络计划目前已落后一年。

六个多月前，桑杜在华盛顿特区举行的2026年卫星大会上表示，轨道网状网络的建设“我们落后了大约三个月”，但他希望能在六个月内开始建设。他自己设定的这个最后期限还有10天就到期了。

但桑杜周二在此表示，SDA项目无法按时启动。事实上，他现在预计至少还要三个月才能开工。总而言之，预计整个项目至少要延期一年。

“我们还没开始呢，”SDA主任在AFA 2026大会上直言不讳地告诉记者。“我们在这方面落后了。我们本应该已经完成​​了。”

“我每周都在督促团队……下一步就是完成这项工作，”他继续说道。“在接下来的三到四个月里，这是我们的首要任务。”

该网络之所以如此重要，是因为它对于简化SDA“扩散型作战人员空间架构”（PSWA）的数据传输至关重要。PSWA旨在覆盖数百颗卫星，提供导弹预警、跟踪和火控服务。为此，该网络将使卫星能够直接相互传输数据，而无需通过地面站中继信号，并且使用激光束而非无线电波进行通信。

桑杜表示，目前存在“诸多问题”，其中之一就是难以获得足够数量的高质量光学元件。他解释说，“光学头”必须设计得足够精密，能够发送和接收清晰的信号，同时又必须足够坚固，能够承受发射入轨的冲击。

这个问题简直就是火箭科学——再加上供应链物流。

Sandhoo解释说，SDA对首批PWSA卫星（第一批）采用了固定价格合同来降低成本。但所有这些合同最终都授予了同一家光通信终端（OCT）供应商。

他说：“那家供应商的产能出现了问题，无法按时交货。”

“第一批产品并没有达到我预期的改进效果，”负责人继续说道，“第二批产品中，我们采取了一些风险缓解措施。”计划是创建“一条并行路径……以便在后续设计中可以选择”从其他供应商处更换OCT设备。

桑杜表示，从长远来看，太空部队对其PWSA卫星有着更大的雄心壮志。这包括为卫星添加边缘计算和人工智能技术，使其能够在轨道上处理海量数据，从而节省天地带宽并加快优先数据的传输速度。

桑杜说：“我们计划在推进这项工作的过程中充分利用所有这些资源，但我们不会一开始就采用变革性人工智能……我们首先还得把卫星送上天。”

特蕾莎·希钦斯对本文亦有贡献。