Weekly GEOINT Community News

Ball Aerospace Completes Integration of NASA’s IXPE Observatory and Begins Testing, CACI Announces Operation of Laser Communications Transmitter Designed for NASA Deep Space Mission, Lockheed Martin Joins U.S. Defense Department’s Platform One DevSecOps Software Initiative, and More

RISE

Ball Aerospace Completes Integration of NASA’s IXPE Observatory and Begins Testing

Ball Aerospace completed the spacecraft and payload assembly integration of NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space-based astrophysics observatory. Ball will now begin environmental testing of the integrated observatory, including all instruments and the spacecraft bus. Scheduled to launch later this year, once on orbit, IXPE will measure cosmic X-rays’ polarization to improve our understanding of the fundamental physics of extreme and exotic objects in the universe, such as black holes.

CACI Announces Operation of Laser Communications Transmitter Designed for NASA Deep Space Mission

CACI International Inc. announced the delivery of a flight model laser communications transmitter to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for use onboard the Psyche spacecraft, whose mission is to study the origin of planetary cores in the asteroid belt. Laser communications, the next-generation space communications technology, can transmit data over long distances at rates up to 100 times faster than traditional radio frequency systems. The laser communications transmitter for the Psyche spacecraft is a vital component of the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) package designed to transmit data in photon packets from the asteroid belt back to Earth, a distance of nearly 200 million miles. CACI delivered an engineering model of the laser communication transmitter to JPL, having passed space qualification testing. To pass space qualification testing, CACI engineers demonstrated the transmitter could withstand both space launch and flight.

Lockheed Martin Joins U.S. Defense Department’s Platform One DevSecOps Software Initiative

The U.S. Air Force added Lockheed Martin to Platform One, an advanced software development program that aims to accelerate the development and deployment of new software applications for defense missions. Platform One is a standardized and widely-mandated Department of Defense (DoD) DevSecOps Infrastructure program applied for future software development. It enables faster software development and deployment with continuous updates to warfighters and will be used on programs such as the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) and AEGIS. The Air Force recently awarded Lockheed Martin a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) for Platform One Software DevSecOps Services to support DevSecOps engineering, software development, cybersecurity and operations, and IT support. The BOA deepens Lockheed Martin’s ongoing collaboration with the Platform One team, creating opportunities for Lockheed Martin to help build and support the Platform One solution and transition systems to Platform One.

Accenture and SAP to Help Organizations Transform Their Business through RISE 

Accenture is working with SAP to help organizations accelerate business transformation through cloud-based deployments of SAP solutions. To support clients at any stage of their transformation journey, Accenture is offering solutions and services that help lower the cost and risk of migrating SAP S/4HANA to the cloud and pave the way for a reinvention of business models and processes. New research from Accenture found the vast majority of companies recognize that cloud provides the means to a variety of business benefits — greater cost efficiencies, improved service levels, increased speed to market — enabling reimagined business models and improving business resilience. However, just 37% of companies say they are achieving the full value expected on cloud investments. Accenture and SAP are working together to help clients embark on business transformation through RISE with SAP, a new business transformation offering that uses the flexibility of public or private cloud infrastructure to provide the full intelligent enterprise experience, including the enterprise resource planning capabilities of SAP S/4HANA and integration with SAP Business Technology Platform.

Unibap and SaraniaSat Demonstrate High-Performance Analysis of Satellite Imagery

Unibap AB, a company devoted to using artificial intelligence to automate solutions on Earth and in space, and SaraniaSat Inc., a provider of actionable information and data to support complex decision-making, deployed L3Harris Technologie’’ ENVI and IDL software to perform complex image processing tasks on SpaceCloud. This enables SpaceCloud customers to harness deep learning capabilities for high-performance, on-orbit computations on all geospatial imagery and data types.

Veritas Capital to Acquire Perspecta in All-Cash Transaction Valued at $7.1B

Perspecta entered into a definitive agreement under which it will be acquired by a portfolio company of leading private investment firm Veritas Capital (“Veritas”), in an all-cash transaction valued at $7.1 billion. Following the closing of the transaction, Perspecta will be combined with Peraton. The combination will create a leading government technology provider that delivers end-to-end capabilities in IT and mission support and serves as the strategic partner of choice across a diverse array of U.S. government customers.

Peer Intel

The Lockheed Martin Corporation board of directors elected President and CEO James D. Taiclet as chairman of the board, effective March 1. Executive Chairman Marillyn A. Hewson informed the board of directors of her intention to retire as executive chairman and board member.

Featured Image: Accenture and SAP to Help Organizations Transform Their Business through RISE | Photo Credit: Accenture

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