Design, test, repeat.

Design, test, repeat, build.

When it comes to delivering traditional satellites, many engineers spend years on what can seem like an endless cycle of designing, testing and repeating before ever getting to the actual build phase.

But not at Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing Company. Here, the company goes from design to delivery in just a few years and in many instances, months. Most recently, the company completed the VICTUS NOX satellite in just eight months.

The timeline for constellations is no different. Take the Space Development Agency’s Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter, or FOO Fighter, as an example. Millennium will deliver a constellation of eight satellites for launch in late 2026, with a ground system, and perform mission operations.

The company received authorization to proceed April 26, 2024. Just four months later, the team completed Preliminary Design Review, or PDR.

“PDR is a normal milestone for any program, but what’s different with FOO Fighter is the timeline and the focus on how our system supports the warfighter,” said Dave Machuga, CEO, Millennium Space Systems. “Because of the maturity of our bus platform, we were able to focus more on mission performance and execution. We also looked at phenomenologies – how do we know we’ll see what we see or detect or track the right thing?”

Typically, programs will go through PDR and critical design review before working with subcontractors.

“To meet this program’s schedule, we had to be off and running at an early stage, procuring parts,” said Doug Hulse, Sensing Portfolio director, Millennium Space Systems. “From a hardware perspective, our biggest enabler is the vehicle – our production line – and how we configured it to meet SDA’s basic cross-cutting requirements.”

Another enabler, and just as important, is mission understanding.

“We know this mission – we have the experience,” said Hulse. “We’ve been at the forefront of fielding the intellectual property and technology that enables FOO Fighter’s mission for the last decade. The insights we gained from that are critical to the mission.”

Between that heritage, robust engineering processes and detailed program planning and tracking, the team is rigorously managing the schedule and marching toward critical design review in early 2025.

F2 accelerates the U.S. government’s ability to provide fire-control in support of global detection, warning and precision tracking of advanced threats, including hypersonic missile systems. It will demonstrate advanced missile defense capability by incorporating fire control-quality sensors into a prototype constellation.

Fun fact: Foo Fighter was a World War II term for Unidentified Flying Objects.

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