DARPA to begin launching Blackjack satellites in late 2020
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to launch the first experimental satellites of the Blackjack program in late 2020 and early 2021, the agency said May 11.
DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office started the Blackjack program in 2018 to show the military utility of low Earth orbit constellations and mesh networks of low-cost satellites.
As many as 20 satellites will be launched by 2022.
The first demonstration, Mandrake 1, is a cubesat that will carry supercomputer processing chips. The second, Mandrake 2, is a pair of small satellites that will carry optical inter-satellite links for broadband data. DARPA says these could form the basis of future optically meshed networks in LEO.
A third payload scheduled to launch is called Wildcard, a software-defined radio that will experiment with links from LEO to tactical radios.
The launch dates and vehicles have not yet been decided.
Blackjack program manager Paul “Rusty” Thomas said Mandrake 1 and 2 will fly in separate launches, and there’s a possibility that Mandrake 2 and Wildcard could be on the same launch. “The program will firm up the dates once there is a clearer picture of how COVID-19 could affect upcoming launch schedules,” Thomas said in a statement.
One of the goals of the Blackjack program is to build satellites at lower cost than traditional military spacecraft by using sensors that can be mass produced to fit on many different buses from different providers for less than $2 million per payload.
DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office started the Blackjack program in 2018 to show the military utility of low Earth orbit constellations and mesh networks of low-cost satellites.
As many as 20 satellites will be launched by 2022.
The first demonstration, Mandrake 1, is a cubesat that will carry supercomputer processing chips. The second, Mandrake 2, is a pair of small satellites that will carry optical inter-satellite links for broadband data. DARPA says these could form the basis of future optically meshed networks in LEO.
A third payload scheduled to launch is called Wildcard, a software-defined radio that will experiment with links from LEO to tactical radios.
The launch dates and vehicles have not yet been decided.
Blackjack program manager Paul “Rusty” Thomas said Mandrake 1 and 2 will fly in separate launches, and there’s a possibility that Mandrake 2 and Wildcard could be on the same launch. “The program will firm up the dates once there is a clearer picture of how COVID-19 could affect upcoming launch schedules,” Thomas said in a statement.
One of the goals of the Blackjack program is to build satellites at lower cost than traditional military spacecraft by using sensors that can be mass produced to fit on many different buses from different providers for less than $2 million per payload.
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