The National Institute of Standards and Technology awarded a purchase order to Ritenet Corp., a minority-owned small disadvantaged business, for $58,371.00 on November 27, 2026, for Ku-band geostationary satellite transponder bandwidth.
Performance is one year through November 26, 2027. The order procures non-preemptable transponder bandwidth on a geostationary satellite positioned between 30W and 45W to support a two-way satellite time/frequency transfer network serving 19 national metrological laboratories across North America and Europe. Specifications include uplink frequencies of 14.0–14.5 GHz and downlink frequencies of 10.95–12.5 GHz with linear cross-polarization, satellite effective isotropically radiated power of at least 42 dBW, and compatibility with TimeTech SATRE modems using pseudorandom noise code at 2.5 Mc/s symbol rate and BPSK modulation. Place of performance is Boulder, Colorado. This order follows a market research sources-sought announcement posted June 9, 2026 (responses due June 19, 2026). Payment is distributed 25% to NIST, 25% to the U.S. Naval Observatory, and 50% to Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Germany.