MDA Space Unveils MDA Aurora™ Black, A Defence-Focused Software-Defined Satellite

 Sept. 10, 2026

MDA Space Ltd. introduces MDA AURORA™ BLACK, an extension of the company's MDA AURORA™ software-defined satellite product line, purpose-built to deliver secure, resilient, and agile communications for government and military customers.

Building on existing features that ensure flexibility, scalability and performance, MDA AURORA™ BLACK adds layers of protection and resilience against cyber, physical and other evolving threats, ensuring reliable connectivity for defence operations.

With enhanced features such as a secure end-to-end connection, onboard anti-jamming capabilities, resistance to GPS spoofing, and perimeter and proximity sensing, MDA AURORA™ BLACK offers elevated mission assurance in contested environments.

"Defence organizations are operating in increasingly complex and contested environments where connectivity is mission-critical and threats to it are real," said Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA Space. "MDA AURORA™ BLACK is designed to bring the agility of our software-defined satellite product into the defence domain, helping countries maintain tactical and strategic communications that are essential to data-centric operations. High-volume production will ensure defence departments globally can achieve near term, secure, sovereign military satellite communications." 

MDA AURORA™ BLACK responds to growing international demand for sovereign and resilient space-based defence communications infrastructure and is available across MDA AURORA™ direct-to-device and broadband product lines.

"Sovereign, defence-specific SATCOM capabilities are a core part of modern military operations around the globe, and, as governments increase their investment in SATCOM-enabled defence capabilities, defence optimized capabilities like those MDA AURORA™ BLACK offers will be critical to securing assured command and control," said Nathan de Ruiter, Senior Partner at consulting & market intelligence firm Novaspace. "The numbers tell the story. Based on NovaSpace research, in 2023, 107 proprietary defence satellites were launched globally, with more than $US40 billion of government space defence and security expenditures contracted to industry. Companies like MDA Space that are bringing sovereign, secure, high-volume satellite solutions to market are well positioned to meet this demand."