Regina Garcia
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems secured an award from Advanced Space to provide spacecraft and services in support of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Oracle spacecraft program.
The General Atomics unit will construct an ESPA-Grande class satellite and conduct payload integration and space vehicle test for the spacecraft program, the energy and defense company said Thursday.
Oracle is envisioned to utilize technologies capable of cislunar space object detection and tracking to allow for space situational awareness as well as position, navigation and timing demonstration.
The AFRL Oracle spacecraft program, which is expected to launch in late 2025, aims to exhibit advanced techniques to detect and track objects in the region near the moon that cannot be viewed optically from the Earth or via satellites.
“We are leveraging our standard GA- 500 satellite bus, which is being developed for the United States Space Force under the Electro-Optical/Infra-Red Weather System contract, to build an optimized spacecraft integrated with Leidos‘ high-performance space optical payload and a customer-provided green propulsion system to fulfill Oracle’s two-year mission demonstration lifecycle,” said GA-EMS President Scott Forney.
