Astrobotic has selected through a competitive acquisition process SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch its Griffin lunar lander in late 2023. The lunar lander will be transporting NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover as part of Griffin Mission 1 that is set to take off from a launch complex at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Lockheed Martin has unveiled a new line of tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites that could help warfighters pursue mobile targets at long ranges while operating in denied environments. The tactical ISR satellites are based on the company’s LM 400 satellite bus, can connect with other battle management and warfighting platforms and can help field new capabilities on orbit in response to changing threats.

The Space Development Agency has released a request for information on potential industry sources that could design and develop space vehicles for the first tranche of the National Defense Space Architecture’s transport layer. SDA wants the Tranche 1 Transport Layer to support multiple warfighter missions by delivering regional persistence capabilities in support of the Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control by facilitating sensor-to-shooter connectivity, low-latency data transport and direct-to-weapon connectivity.

Anduril Industries plans a new round of financing that would value the defense technology startup at approximately $4 billion to $5 billion. The Irvine, California-based startup is likely to use the proceeds to further expand development work on drones and other military equipment.

A Verizon report has found that 48 percent of public sector respondents whose organizations had suffered a compromise involving a mobile device said the effects of the breach were major. Public sector organizations cited loss of data, increased risk to employee safety and disruption of operations as the top three consequences of a breach they were concerned about.

Wesley Kremer, president of the missiles and defense business at Raytheon Technologies, talked about how defense contractors speed up the development of weapons systems and related platforms for armed services using digital thread or digital design.

Mike Daniels, vice president of global public sector at Google Cloud, wrote in a blog post published Thursday that the company has expanded its list of government and security compliance certifications for its cloud service offerings to address public sector requirements. One of those is the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program High certification for the company's Cloud DNS platform.

NASA has selected a Luna Innovations-built semiconductor laser for use in its Navigation Doppler LiDAR system. “To precisely measure the vehicle speed, direction, and distance, our NDL system uses both Doppler shift and laser beam travel time, which requires a highly stable single-frequency laser source,” said Farzin Amzajerdian, NDL principal investigator from NASA Langley Research Center. “The RIO laser from Luna Innovations has met NASA’s requirements for high reliability, low noise, and ultra-narrow linewidth.”

A U.S. subsidiary of Software AG has partnered with MxD to help the latter provide a tool that will allow the Department of Defense to identify risks to its supply chain and minimize potential disruption to manufacturing capabilities during a crisis.

Horace Blackman, senior vice president of consulting services at CGI, told Government Matters in an interview posted Thursday that agencies should consider the option of “reimagining the value chain” as they decide whether to update or replace legacy information technology platforms. “When we talk about reimagining the value chain, it’s looking at the mission and asking the question how can we best leverage technology to support this mission,” said Blackman.

Greg Hayes, CEO of Raytheon Technologies, said the company has positioned its product portfolio to target the 2018 National Defense Strategy’s priorities as it anticipates a flat defense budget in the coming fiscal year, the Washington Business Journal reported Thursday.

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force completed the integrated baseline review for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile program under an engineering and manufacturing development contract awarded in September. The review involves the establishment of schedule and cost baseline, risk identification and development of mitigation plans within the first 180 days of contract award.

Tara Murphy Dougherty and Billy Fabian of Govini wrote in a commentary published Wednesday on Defense News that the Department of Defense should learn and adapt to address vulnerabilities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in its enterprise to “inoculate itself against systemic collapse before the next crisis.”

Becky John, formerly vice president of capture at ECS, has been appointed VP of business development at the Fairfax, Virginia-based government technology contractor. She will oversee the company’s business development operations team, lead strategic growth initiatives and develop collaborative platforms with federal clients in support of their mission objectives.

Amy Gilliland, president of General Dynamics’ information technology business and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, said the company is focusing more on how it is delivering technology platforms to government clients to support their IT modernization efforts amid expectations of federal budget constraints. "We have shifted our investment approach to not just partner with companies that have very leading-edge capabilities and new ideas, but to focus squarely on the implementation side, which means we have the right skills to deploy commercial products, support and operate them in an agency environment,” Gilliland said.