York Space Systems, an aerospace company specializing in complete space segment customer solutions and the manufacture of small and medium class spacecraft, this week announced the execution of a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), supporting the deployment of the Harbinger Mission.

Under the Agreement, York Space Systems and Army SMDC will work cooperatively toward the on-orbit demonstration of the Harbinger Mission. The Harbinger Mission will be the first flight demonstration of York's S-Class platform designed to offer rapid response capability to both commercial and military customers.

The mission suite for Harbinger will include York's S-Class spacecraft bus, Iceye's Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), an AMR field-effect electric propulsion system (FEEP), X-Band downlink, and BridgeSat's Laser communications terminal demonstrating compatibility with their global network.

"We are honored to be working with the Army, as they have been truly supportive of our efforts. This agreement with the Army demonstrates the kind of vision and perspicacity that will be required to execute on timelines, and at cost points not imaginable before; which we see as being required in the very near term," said Dirk Wallinger, Chief Executive Officer of York Space Systems.

"We look forward to our continued cooperation with the Army SMDC and look forward to the successes to come."

York will serve as the Prime, integrating designs, components, and subsystems provided from around the globe including Sweden, France, Finland, Austria, and the United States demonstrating true international cooperation in meeting market needs.

York Space Systems is an innovative American aerospace company founded by alums from NASA, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, and Ball Aerospace specializing in complete space segment customer solutions and the manufacture of small and medium class spacecraft based in Denver, CO. The company is entering the production phase of their S-Class platform, which leverages a proprietary design to reduce the cost of manufacture by an order of magnitude.

The S-Class platform is a 3-axis stabilized spacecraft capable of supporting 85kg payloads with up to 100W of Orbit Average Power (OAP), 1,400W peak (Standard), and 3,000W peak (Enhanced). With one week delivery times on inventory, known interfaces, and unmatched cost points, the S-Class is intended to win the make/buy decision for Space data providers with a Model-T approach.