Rocket Lab plans to use the Photon spacecraft for an orbital demonstration of the Space Data Network (SDN) of the US Space Force 2027 year.
For reference: SDN is a military communications architecture for transferring large amounts of data between satellites, as well as between space and Earth. In May, SpaceX signed a contract for 2,29 billion dollars
for the construction of the basic SDN-B network — a distributed constellation with optical communication channels.
18 In August, the company announced details on the verification of the connection between the core network, built by SpaceX, and satellites of other providers. Rocket Lab's contract includes equipping Photon with optical communications equipment and networking facilities to demonstrate in-orbit interoperability.
The US Space Systems Command selected five companies (Rocket Lab, Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman і York Space Systems) for the cost program
60 millions of dollars, aimed at testing the possibilities of connecting various commercial satellite systems to SDN. Each company received 12 millions of dollars.
Space forces are working on creating common interfaces, which will allow systems from other vendors to connect to that network, avoiding dependence on one company's technologies. The Rocket Lab demonstration will test the interoperability of secure optical communications between satellites and ground systems.
Source: https://spacenews.com