DARPA offers new details on Blackjack risk-reduction satellites

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week offered new details into planned risk-reduction launches for the Blackjack program -- an effort aimed at demonstrating new capabilities to improve autonomy and networking for satellite constellations.

Inside Defense reported last November the program planned to launch at least two risk-reduction payloads in 2020 as rideshares. In a press release this week, DARPA said the first two payloads, dubbed Mandrake 1 and Mandrake 2, could form the baseline for a future optically meshed computer network in low-earth orbit. The program is also considering a third payload, Wildcard, which would help the effort experiment with making links between LEO to tactical radios.

The press release also references a data fusion experiment that may launch on an upcoming Loft Orbital mission. It notes that the payload launches are slated for late 2020 and 2021.

The program plans to complete hardware builds for the first two military payloads next spring and begin integration next summer, eyeing a launch in late 2021. The remainder of the demonstration satellites will launch in 2022.

Program Manager Paul Thomas said in the release that DARPA has worked hard to get the design right from the start.

“We focused first on buses and payloads, then the autonomous mission management center, which we call Pit Boss,” he said.

The program is currently considering bus proposals from Telesat, Airbus and Blue Canyon Technologies, and plans to make a selection this year. DARPA recently completed preliminary design review for Pit Boss, and chose SEAKR Engineering as the primary contractor. Lockheed Martin is the satellite integrator.

DARPA is also evaluating proposals from a number of companies to produce payloads for the demonstration, including Collins Aerospace, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Trident, Systems and Technology Research, SA Photonics and L3Harris.

"Over the next few months, the program will run simulations to test payloads in virtual constellations of all types of missions," the release states. "The goal is to show interoperability between the commoditized buses and the various payloads being considered."