NRL’s Satellite Operations Service is Ready for the Space Force Enterprise

WASHINGTON, D.C.  –   The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Spacecraft Engineering Department recently developed the Transmit/Receive Enterprise (TREx) service with sponsorship from the Space Development Agency, Space Rapid Capabilities Office, and Space Systems Command to provide software development and mission operations for sponsoring organizations across the space community.

The TREx service provides secure access to various government and commercial antenna networks, which dramatically increases the amount of time satellites can be in contact with ground stations. This enables the satellite missions to operate more effectively by downlinking more data from space, and to recover faster if the satellite experiences an anomaly.

“Every satellite operations team we work with wishes they had more contact time with their space vehicles. We knew there were underutilized government and commercial antennas available, but we needed to build a service to broker access in a secure way for DoW missions.” said Keith Akins, NRL aerospace engineer and government technical lead on TREx “We have already seen a huge impact to satellite missions operating at NRL, and now missions across the USSF can onboard to the service.”

In 2022, TREx was the first cloud-native information system to receive an Authority to Operate (ATO) from the U.S. Space Force. Since then, TREx has been serving dozens of satellites on orbit with 24/7 “lights out” automated operations and has brokered over 90,000 antenna reservations and 700,000 minutes of satellite contacts from antennas all over the globe. The TREx design enables satellite missions to quickly and easily access new ground stations as they are added to the service.

The U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s (SSC) new Space Domain Awareness and Battle Management System Delta 85 (SYD 85) drives enterprise integration and modernization of tactical level Command, Control, and Communications (C3) capabilities to transform satellite operations and create a resilient C3 enterprise for the warfighter. SYD 85 and NRL have partnered for over a year coordinating a smooth transition of TREx from being managed at NRL to the acquisition office of the Space Force.

“This is exactly the type of lab-to-operations success we strive for,” said Col. Patrick Little, SYD 85 Space Access & Networked Services System Program Director. “The TREx system brings enhanced flexibility and efficiency to our antenna services, directly supporting our mission to deliver integrated, resilient capabilities to the field.”

The NRL TREx project included participation from a variety of industry partners, including Space/Ground System Solutions (SGSS), Artic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) Federal, Sphinx Defense, Systems Security Engineering Group (SS3G), RBC Signals, Amazon Web Services, ViaSat, and Swedish Space Corp.

“We are fortunate at NRL to be able to use our own satellites and antennas at the Blossom Point Tracking Facility to test and mature TREx,” said Brian Cassidy, NRL computer engineer and TREx product owner. “We started with a napkin sketch and recruited a one-of-a-kind team to deliver a production service supporting daily satellite operations. It’s a win for the DOW space community to transition TREx from a research lab directly into operations.”

As of August 2025, NRL has transitioned TREx to SYD 85, where TREx will onboard additional satellite missions and serve the broader U.S. Space Force enterprise as part of the Joint Antenna Marketplace (JAM). JAM is a secure, cloud-based marketplace that connects satellite operations centers with commercial and government antennas worldwide.

The NRL Spacecraft Engineering Division designs, builds, and operates pioneering and innovative spacecraft and space systems. The division functions as a prototype laboratory for new and operationally relevant space-based capabilities. From cradle to grave, the division provides expertise in mission design, systems design and engineering, and hardware expertise for every aspect of a space system.

The division has a history of transitioning advanced technologies into operations and industry, applying expertise in systems integration, design and verification, dynamics and control systems, electronics and software, and mission operations to develop advanced space technologies.

About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.

For more information, contact NRL Corporate Communications at (202) 480-3746 or nrlpao@us.navy.mil. Please reference package number at top of press release.