L3Harris’ Contract to Modernize Space-Domain Awareness Extended by Space Force

L3Harris Technologies announced on Thursday that it has been selected by the Space Force to continue efforts to upgrade and modernize its space domain awareness, which is used to help combat anti-satellite threats. The latest deal is a follow-on to a 2018 sole-source $53 million contract to develop the Advanced Tracking and Launch Analysis System, which was commissioned to replace the aging Space Defense Operations Center, SpaceNews reported Thursday.

In a statement, L3Harris said it has been developing applications in a new architecture that will allow ATLAS to scale and handle the exponential growth of commercial constellations, increased debris, anti-satellite tests and adversarial threats. With the award of a new Space Force contract, the company can now begin integrating the government’s equipment and overseeing ATLAS application deployment.

Ed Zoiss, president of L3Harris’ Space and Airborne Systems, said anti-satellite threats have increased and require immediate attention. He added that the work the company will do under the contract extension will be key to understanding and acting on those threats.

USSF officials called the immediate fielding of the ATLAS system an “urgent need” following the Air Force’s unsuccessful attempts to replace the old SPADOC system. SPADOC was introduced in the 1990s to monitor launches and objects in orbit, and to support the safety of flight operations.

The Space Systems Command said that ATLAS is part of a larger Space Force program known as Space C2 that was started following the cancellation of the Joint Space Operations Center Mission System in 2018. The JMS was launched in 2009 but performed poorly, SpaceNews further reported.