The contract awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) was for the first phase of a program dubbed "F6," which stands for "Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated, Free-Flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange."

The program aims to show that large traditional satellites can be replaced with smaller "fractionated" satellites that would fly in clusters and be linked through wireless networks.

Capabilities such as computing, ground communications, or payloads could be distributed among the satellites in the network, the company said.

"The ultimate goal of the program is to launch a fractionated spacecraft system and demonstrate it in orbit in approximately four years," Lockheed Martin said in a statement.

The preliminary design phase covers a year-long period in which Lockheed Martin will evaluate available technologies and simulate "the fractionated space network mission," it said.

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