
The Pentagon officially established the Space Development Agency March 12 under the direction of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and will first focus on developing the architecture for a low-Earth orbit sensor layer, a senior department official said March 13. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan signed a memo Tuesday establishing the SDA as a separate department agency and naming its first director: Fred Kennedy, who currently serves as the director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA)…