Lockheed Martin Submits USAF's Payload Solutions Proposal

Lockheed Martin submitted a proposal for the U.S. Air Force's Hosted Payload Solutions (HoPS) initiative aimed at leveraging commercial satellites for some government missions. 

The HoPS contract will procure a fully functioning on-orbit hosted payload system and integrated ground system equipment and interfaces that deliver payload data to the government end user.  SMC's Developmental Planning Directorate is the acquisition office for HoPS. HoPS will provide the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and other U.S. government organizations with "a capability for hosting Government payloads on commercial spacecraft to meet mission objectives."

"We believe that the U.S. Air Force's HoPS initiative will be a very useful tool in finding the nexus of capability, affordability, and resilience for critical national space missions," Mark Valerio, vice president of Lockheed Martin's Military Space line of business, said.

"We are certainly known for satellites, but we have a long history of developing and integrating hosted payloads onto spacecraft as well," Valerio continued.  "In fact, just since 2000, Lockheed Martin has delivered 84 payloads on 16 different types of satellites from multiple manufacturers.  Three of these have been Government payloads integrated on commercial hosts where we solved the business and technical aspects of the integration challenge."