Space Development Agency

Space Development Agency is a U.S. defense space acquisition agency founded on 2019-03-12 and now subordinate to the U.S. Space Force, with headquarters at 1670 Air Force Pentagon in Washington, DC.^[1][2] Its core programme is the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a low-Earth-orbit military architecture organized around transport, tracking, battle-management, custody, navigation, ground-and-launch, and futures layers.^[1] For Earth-observation buyers, the key distinction is that SDA's tracking work uses infrared missile-warning and missile-tracking sensors, while its transport layer is a mesh communications relay using optical inter-satellite links and RF rather than an Earth-observation data service.^[1] Tranche 0 launched in April 2023, Tranche 1 is operational, and Tranche 2 covers 270 satellites planned for late-2026 launches.^[1][2] December 2025 Tranche 3 tracking awards cover 72 missile-warning and tracking satellites targeted for FY2029 launch.^[3] Dr Gurpartap Sandhoo became SDA director on 2026-05-11, and a May 2026 draft FY2026 NDAA provision proposed dissolving SDA into the Space Force Rapid Capabilities Office.^[4][5]