
The Air Force Research Laboratory plans to demonstrate a new space-based communications transponder in low-Earth orbit by next spring, the lab’s space vehicles director said June 4. The “XVI” program is one of several efforts that AFRL is pursuing that could eventually bring the U.S. military and commercial space companies together to enable new capabilities in a proliferated LEO architecture, said Col. Eric Felt in a Thursday webinar hosted by Space News. “The PLEO constellations – or proliferated LEO –…