NASA: contracts worth up to more than $1 billion for Viasat, Astranis and Global Enterprise Solutions to succeed the TDRS relay satellites

NASA has selected three companies to develop concepts for a service that will succeed the relay satellites that have served the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope for decades. The agency announced on Wednesday, November 4, 2026 that contracts for Ka-band relay services go to Astranis Space Technologies, Global Enterprise Solutions and Viasat.

The maximum potential value of each contract, with all future optional phases, is $264.3 million for Astranis, $340.4 million for Global Enterprise Solutions and $460.9 million for Viasat. Cumulatively the ceiling exceeds $1.06 billion, but that amount is paid only if NASA exercises all the options.

These are firm-fixed-price contracts. NASA has the right to provide additional funding up to each contract’s ceiling, so that the project moves from initial concept development and risk reduction to an in-orbit flight demonstration. The initial period of performance runs from November 4 to May 3, 2027, with additional priced options to continue work through 2029. The contracts fall under Appendix E of the broad NextSTEP-3 announcement, the programme of industry partnerships for developing exploration technologies.

What NASA wants

What is sought is a complete end-to-end service, including the space segment, ground equipment, launch, operations and integration. The main requirement is that it works with today’s users without any modification to the systems of their satellites and spacecraft. The Ka band is part of the radio-frequency spectrum used for high-speed data links. NASA will be one of many customers of the commercial market and not the only one.

The programme, called NEXUS, was first announced on March 23, 2026. In the solicitation NASA asked for a solution compatible with legacy users for at least fifteen years and set as a goal to limit the growing risk of an interruption in communications continuity in 2029–2031. The competition proceeds in phases: contracts are first awarded to several bidders and their number is gradually reduced.

The aging TDRS fleet

The reason is the gradual retirement of the TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) fleet. The system has operated since 1983, with TDRS-1, and its satellites, in geostationary orbit at an altitude of 35,786 kilometres, relay signals between low-orbit spacecraft and ground stations so that missions stay in almost continuous contact with Earth. They have served more than 25 missions, among them Hubble and the International Space Station. In 2025 seven satellites remained in operation, while the last one, TDRS-13, was launched in 2017. Since November 8, 2024, NASA no longer assigns new missions to the system.

The agency explains that, besides the commercial capabilities its partners are already developing, Ka-band services are needed for selected missions in orbit that cannot change their equipment or move to incompatible commercial services. The award is made through the Communications Services Project of the SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) programme, which manages NASA’s communications and navigation. In 2022 the agency had already funded six American partners (Inmarsat Government, Kuiper Government Solutions, SES Space & Defense, SpaceX, Telesat U.S. Services and Viasat) with $278.5 million to develop and demonstrate relay capabilities. Viasat took part then as well.

Hubble, one of the main users of TDRS, also occupies NASA for another reason: the agency is asking the private sector for information on a mission to boost the telescope’s orbit and service it.