The Space Development Agency (SDA) launched its first two satellite missions on June 30--two Astro Orbital-built Mandrake II cube satellites with an SA Photonics payload, two General Atomics Laser Interconnect Networking Communications System (LINCS) microsatellites to demonstrate space-to-air communications with a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drone, and a Loft Orbital satellite carrying the Prototype On-orbit Experimental Testbed (POET) payload. The latter is to demonstrate a low-latency “battle management capability” in space. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the rideshare satellites on the Transporter 2…
