On April 8, the U.S. Space Force awarded LinQuest Corp. a $14 million contract to ensure the company continues to provide support for U.S. Space Command — support it’s provided since before the command was even reestablished.
In April 2019, LinQuest was awarded a one-year contract to help Joint Force Space Component Commander Gen. John “Jay” Raymond stand up the 11th combatant command. Under that $9 million sole-source contract, LinQuest provided nonpersonal services to stand up and support U.S. Space Command.
Raymond, who’d already been nominated to serve as the first commander of the reestablished U.S. Space Command at that point, was confirmed by the Senate that summer, and in August the organization was officially established at a Rose Garden ceremony. Later when the U.S. Space Force was established in December, Raymond was appointed to also serve as the new service’s first chief of space operations.
Now with that one-year contract coming to an end, both organizations have been officially established, but both are still under development. The April 8 contract extends LinQuest’s support to the nascent U.S. Space Command through April 21, 2021. Work will be performed in Colorado at Peterson Air Force Base and Schriever Air Force Base.
LinQuest is a longtime U.S. Air Force contractor, supporting the service’s space operations for several years before the establishment of the U.S. Space Force or U.S. Space Command. In July, the Air Force awarded the company a $562 million, seven-and-a-half-year contract to continue provide engineering, integration and solution support for satellite systems and architecture.
Nathan Strout covers space, unmanned and intelligence systems for C4ISRNET.
