DARPA grants Blackjack agreements to Blue Canyon, SA Photonics

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency reported on June 10 it granted Blue Canyon Technologies a $14.1 million agreement for satellite transports for the Blackjack program. DARPA on June 9 likewise reported a $16.3 million agreement grant to SA Photonics for Blackjack payloads. 

The Blackjack program is an analysis to show the military utility of low Earth circle star groupings and work systems of minimal effort satellites. 

The two organizations previously had been chosen as a component of a pool of Blackjack satellite transport and payload providers and had gotten study contracts. These most recent agreements are to create equipment for the exhibition. 

DARPA needs to make attachment and-play satellites where new payloads can be added without updating the transport. That approach would permit the military to accelerate the creation and lower the expense of satellites contrasted with conventional acquisitions of exceptionally constructed rocket. 

DARPA intends to dispatch the initial two satellites in late 2020 and 18 more by 2022. 

The agreement granted to Blue Canyon Technologies, situated in Boulder, Colorado, requires conveyance of an undisclosed number of satellite transports by June 2021. 

SA Photonics, of Los Gatos, California, got an agreement to create optical correspondences terminals to be conveyed by March 2021. DARPA will set up a couple of little satellites that will convey optical between satellite connections for broadband information. The organization said this innovation could frame the premise of future optically fit systems in LEO.