NASA Sets 30-Day Clock to Replace Mars Relay Orbiters in $700M Push
NASA issued a roughly $700 million RFP for the Mars Telecommunications Network, giving bidders just 30 days to propose commercial high‑performance relay orbiters to replace aging Mars relay satellites. The move aims to ensure continuous data links for surface missions, future sample-return hardware, and eventual crewed missions, with CubeSat payload options added to hedge against mission risk. Industry interest is expected from Rocket Lab, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Maxar, but the tight timeline underscores NASA’s urgency to avoid a data blackout before the 2030s Moon-to-Mars cadence.