Aiming at the problem that the domestic space-borne data transmitter cannot achieve flexible and variable carrier frequency, a scheme of carrier source with configurable output frequency was proposed. The highly accurate and variable reference frequency and flexible configuration of the phase detection frequency in the phase detector in the phase-locked loop (PLL) were realized to make the output frequency of the carrier source programmable configuration by combining the field programmable gate array(FPGA) and digital-to-analog converter(DAC).The measured results from the carrier source with programmed output frequency were shown that the function for arbitrarily configuring output center frequency points in the X-band frequency range of 8.025~8.4 GHz could be realized, and the phase noise were less than -66 dBc/Hz@100 Hz、-75 dBc/Hz@1 kHz、-80 dBc/Hz@10 kHz、-95 dBc/Hz@100 kHz、-120 dBc/Hz@1 MHz, the spurious suppression was below -74 dBc, the frequency resolution was less than 10 Hz. The related circuit can replace the function of the dedicated direct digital frequency synthesis (DDS) chip and can be adapted to the space applications environment.