CNCE Block 1 (Cubesat Networked Communications Experiment) Satellites

The cubesats will mimic two suborbital missile interceptor vehicles and test communications between them.

The CNCE Block 1 mission will demonstrate the viability of advanced communications technologies using reduced size, weight and power in support of missile defense communications architectures.

The satellites are the first of a series of network communications experiments planned by MDA to demonstrate mesh networking in space and satellite-to-ground links. The cubesats will mimic two suborbital missile interceptor vehicles and test communications between them.

Transmitting data between interceptors, sensors and communication systems is critical to a missile defense architecture that must quickly identify, track and destroy incoming enemy missiles before they reach their targets.

The missile defense architecture will require communications between interceptors, sensors and command and control systems to quickly identify, track and destroy incoming enemy missiles before they reach their targets. The cubesats will allow the agency to demonstrate the capabilities quickly and affordably.

Mobile CubeSat Command and Control, or MC3, ground station network, Space Dynamics laboratory (Mission Integrator), Space Micro Inc. (Payload) and Blue Canyon Technologies (Spacecraft Bus).

Space Micro Inc., powered by Voyager Space, today announced the successful performance of its Software Defined Radios (SDRs) on Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) CubeSat Networked Communications Experiment (CNCE) Block 1. Initially launched in June 2021 and completed in March 2022, CNCE Block 1, which is part of MDA’s Nanosat Testbed Initiative (NTI), used small, low-cost satellites to demonstrate networked radio communications between nanosatellites while in orbit.
MDA retired the Block 1 satellites in March 2022 and they will de-orbit and burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere.

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