WASHINGTON ― The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is winding down its Space-BACN project, which was developing a key underpinning technology for the sprawling Golden Dome missile defense initiative, Breaking Defense has learned.
However, the program will effectively continue under new ownership, as company officials involved say it is being transitioned away from DARPA and over to the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). The idea is for DIU to open up a bid process for on-orbit demonstration of the Space-BACN terminal configuration, they explained.
While DARPA is the Defense Department’s far-future research agency, DIU is charged with building up the technological readiness of promising tech and then hopefully handing it off to one of the military services (in Space-BACN’s case, the Space Force) or another DoD agency under a formal acquisition program.
The transition to DIU is a good sign for the effort, according to the company officials, as it represents moving from the early development stage into something closer to ready for prime time. DIU did not respond to a request for comment.
Space-BACN aimed to develop “universal” satellite laser links that can be reconfigured on-orbit to allow any and all satellite constellations to cross-talk. Optical communications among satellites with incompatible communications protocols will be critical for the Space Force’s emerging plans for a Space Data Network (SDN).
When fully substantiated, the SDN will encompass a “hybrid architecture” of old and new military satellites, as well as commercial and allied birds, all communicating seamlessly to shift vast quantities of data around the world in near real-time — and be a key enabler of Golden Dome, linking missile warning and tracking sensors to shooters across all warfighting domains.
Like most satellite communications networks on orbit, most current laser link terminals use proprietary software and different communications protocols ― in effect, they speak different languages. DARPA launched Space-BACN in late 2021 to solve this problem, and awarded Phase 1 development contracts to 11 companies in August 2022. It downselected to seven contractors in December 2023 for Phase 2 of the program, aligned under three “Technical Areas,” dubbed TA1, TA2 and TA3.
According to the agency’s fiscal 2027 budget documents, the last tranche of funding for Space-BACN was $5.7 million appropriated in 2025 ― funds that are now being expended to finalize the project. DARPA has never revealed the total budget for Space-BACN, but it budgeted slightly more than $60 million between FY23 and FY24, according to past budget requests.
Space-BACN Optical Terminals to Roll into DIU Pathfinder
Under TA1, startups Mbryonics, based in Ireland, and Mynaric, based in Germany, were tapped to develop the optical payload (in essence, telescopes) for low-size, -weight, -power and -cost, standardized terminals to send and receive the laser links. Both contractors have completed development of their respective optical intersatellite link (OISL) terminals, and “are scheduled for performance verification tests this summer,” a DARPA spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
Those tests, according to executives from both companies, will take place on the ground but will realistically simulate in-space environmental conditions.
John Mackey, founder and CEO of Mbryonics, told Breaking Defense that the Space-BACN tech fundamentally “is a skeleton key” to unlock traditional satellite network stovepipes and vendor lock ― allowing DoD to “on ramp” other government-owned, commercially operated and/or commercial constellations to communicate with military networks, and vice versa.
He noted that the “DARPA-hard” challenge for Space-BACN was nicknamed “100-cubed,” creating a terminal that could transmit data at 100 gigabits per second using only 100 watts of power, and doing so at a price point at around $100,000 per unit.
Mbryonics is utilizing a “software defined terminal” designd to be interoperable “both at the communication language, but also on the pointing out position and tracking exactly with with [SpaceX’s] Starshield and other programs like Amazon LEO,” Mackey said.
He added that Mbryonics is using a modem based on open standards and what is known as “coherent” laser link tech to allow the OISLs to connect at longer ranges ― with an eye on both Golden Dome and the Space Force’s planned Resilient Missile Warning Tracking program in medium Earth orbit. Coherent laser links already are in use by SpaceX and Amazon LEO, he explained, and like those two companies Mbryonics is vertically integrating to build its own optical communications satellites from soup to nuts.
Joachim Horwatch, CEO of Mynaric, told Breaking Defense that the company’s terminal would undergo DARPA’s verification testing on May 5, using its own test bed.
“We have more [test bed] capabilities than anybody else; we can really duplicate the link in space,” he said.
This includes, Horwatch elaborated, the capability to duplicate how a satellite carrying the optical terminal would move and shake in space in order to test the OISL terminal’s abilities to find and lock the laser link onto those carried by other satellites.
Mynaric also is a subcontractor for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture mesh network in low Earth orbit (LEO). It currently has 42 OISLs on orbit as a subcontractor to York Space Systems, and another 84 set to go up on satellites being provided by Northrop Grumman.
While Mynaric suffered some serious supply chain and production scaling issues early in the SDA program, Horwatch said that the root causes (which included a faulty commercial part) have been found and fixed, and that the company now has “mastered” serial production.
“We have manufactured 500 units. We have shipped more than anybody else to customers worldwide,” he said, adding that the fact that the company is using a “real production terminal” for Space-BACN is a plus point.
He noted that one goal of the future DIU pathfinder program would be to extend the range of the laser links from that of both the SDA program and Space-BACN.
“The SDA kind of terminals are so cute and small, but the range is limited to 6,500 kilometers. How can we make them communicate to 30,000 kilometers?” Horwatch said.
Space-BACN Reconfigurable Modems, C2 System Already Moved Out
Under Space-BACN’s TA2, Intel Federal (now Altera) and Arizona State University were Phase 2 winners charged with designing the back end of the terminal; that is, a “reconfigurable modem” that can support multiple optical waveforms. However, only Altera’s design was chosen to transition to DIU for “further development,” the spokesperson said.
In addition, the Space Force’s FY27 research, development, test and evaluation budget requests includes an unspecified sum in a larger, $20 million funding basket to develop space-to-space communications technology to “enhance” and further develop Space-BACN’s “modem design to support long-range crosslinks and incorporate emerging optical waveform standards.”
Lastly, the “activities” of the three Phase 2 contractors under TA3 ― Telesat Government Solutions, SpaceX and Amazon LEO (at the time of the award known as Kuiper Government Solutions), ― to help DARPA design the cross-communications command and control (C2) system “are complete and results have transitioned to inform future architectural designs,” the DARPA spokesperson said.
According to DARPA’s FY27 budget documents, the C2 software “controls access and configures connectivity between constellations based on availability and mission requirements, and has been transitioned to the Space Development Agency and other military services.