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Space

SDA Awards IonQ’s Capella $49 Million For Tactical Space Comms Demonstration

By Cal Biesecker

Tuesday, April 7th, 2026

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SDA Awards IonQ’s Capella $49 Million For Tactical Space Comms Demonstration

Pictured is a Space Development Agency (SDA) file photo of Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, SDA’s acting director.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) on Tuesday said it awarded IonQ’s [IONQ] Capella Space business a potential $48.9 million prototype agreement to demonstrate advanced tactical waveform performance, adaptive beamforming and secure tactical communications in low Earth orbit by November 2027. Capella will develop two spacecraft with radio frequency payloads, mission-specific waveforms and ground systems for secure communications with the satellites. The award was the second by SDA under the Tranche 2 Demonstration and Experimentation (T2DES) Europa program, which seeks proposals…

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