Terran Orbital wins satellite order from Lockheed
October 25, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Terran Orbital is holding its Town Hall meeting on October 26th but management will be strengthened by a new 36-craft order from Lockheed Martin (LM) for Terran’s satellite buses, the main structural component of a satellite. LM is a shareholder in Terran.
The order comes because of LM contract with the US Space Development Agency (SDA) that is building a fleet of military satellites for its Transport Layer Tranche 2. The government contract is worth $816 million for LM.
LM to date has to date won orders for 88 satellites from SDA. This batch is scheduled to launch in 2026. LM will ingest these Terran core elements and integrate the craft’s payloads at its Denver factory.
“We congratulate Lockheed Martin on another big contract win in support of SDA’s Transport Layer mission,” said Marc Bell, Terran Orbital Chairman and CEO. “We are proud that Lockheed Martin has selected Terran Orbital to deliver high-quality satellite buses for a vital mission to connect and protect US military personnel worldwide.”
Terran Orbital is already building 42 buses for LM to help the company fulfil its $700 million contract for the SDA’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL), currently scheduled for a late 2024 launch.
In 2022, Terran Orbital delivered 10 satellite buses to LM in support of their Tranche 0 Transport Layer contract with SDA. The T2TL Beta satellites are scheduled to be deployed into low Earth orbit during a series of launches starting in 2026.
Terran is also building 600 LEO satellites for Rivada Networks.