The U.S. Air Force is seeking input from industry by Oct. 2 about the feasibility of building a demonstration satellite that would use lasers to transmit information between space and the ground, according to a posting on a U.S. government procurement Web site.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center expects responses to the formal request for information to help it determine whether the U.S. industrial base could provide a laser communications payload and host spacecraft for a program that could be started in 2011 and demonstrated on orbit in 2015, the posting said. The Air Force scheduled an Aug. 31 industry day at the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., to discuss the opportunity.
