Northrop Grumman Delivers Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission Components

Northrop Grumman has completed two key components for the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission and has advanced to the next phase of preparations.

ASBM is a planned two-satellite constellation aimed at facilitating secure communications in the North Pole region. It is a joint effort with Space Norway and the U.S. Space Force built on the GEOStar-3 spacecraft bus and a Northrop-supplied payload and ground system.

The Space Force received the Control and Planning Segment ground system in March after a successful site acceptance test and a functional configuration audit. CAPS is transitioning to the operations phase and could be used to support two on-orbit Enhanced Polar System payloads that provide extremely high-frequency SATCOM capabilities in the North Polar Region.

The two ASBM satellites are also expected to host payloads for the Norwegian Ministry of Defense, Inmarsat and the European Commission, Northrop said Monday.

In June, one of the two ASBM spacecraft completed vacuum testing.