The U.S. Air Force has picked Intelsat General Corp. to study the use of commercial satellite control network capabilities for government satellite operations.

The study will specifically focus on commercial facilities and operations expertise for tracking, telemetry and command of satellites.

The value of the Air Force Satellite Control Network Commercial Provisioning study was not disclosed, but Intelsat is one of four companies to receive the award to provide USAF Space Command with a detailed plan for leveraging commercial TT&C facilities and capabilities to reduce operations and maintenance costs.

"It is the objective of this study to determine possible methods of transitioning this requirement to the commercial sector to achieve cost efficiencies in the new budgetary environment," said Kay Sears, president of Intelsat General. "Intelsat, with global operations that span over 400 antennas and that achieve 99.99 percent availability, has demonstrated that we can provide our customers with more cost-efficient operations without sacrificing innovation, resiliency, quality or security."

Under the contract, Intelsat General will partner with Braxton Technologies, a Colorado-based company that is working on contracts from the Air Force Research Lab related to AFSCN scheduling improvements and portable test equipment.

"The commercial marketplace has driven the costs for a ground TT&C antenna architecture to less than 1/5th of what it costs the Air Force to operate the AFSCN today," said Frank Backes, chief executive officer of Braxton Technologies. "Partnering with IGC, we can offer a robust, secure network at a far greater capability, with extreme reliability at significantly less cost."

The performance period of the study is 90 days and is to produce a plan outline for transferring the TT&C functions of government satellites to commercial companies over a period of two to five years.