A DARPA official couldn't confirm an exact launch date for the two Telesat birds, but explained in an email today that the agency is awaiting on a launch slot as well as the availability of an integration facility.
Mandrake 2's next trick, after demonstrating optical intersatellite links, will be using lasers for space-to-ground communications.
As threats evolve, the winning model ties digital engineering to manufacturing capacity and a reindustrialized supply chain.
"The good news is the government is very interested in the commercial opportunities, but from the industry standpoint, it's hard to figure out like what door to walk through and how to how to make that contact," said Steve Isakowitz, CEO of the Aerospace Corporation.
Loft's two satellites are carrying payloads for a Space Development Agency demo, the UAE Space Agency and European commercial satcom firm Eutelsat, among others.
Two of the experiments, each involving two satellites, are focused on laser links: one between satellites themselves; the other from satellites to a MQ-9 Reaper drone on the ground.
The largest of the four categories is called "Develop A Warfighter Punch" and includes $279 million for classified programs.
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"We really focused on payloads that had tactical utility, because they were an underserved market," said Blackjack program manager Stephen Forbes.
The company's software-defined Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technology will offer military users an agile new signal from low Earth orbit (LEO) that is not dependent on existing satellite navigation systems," said Nicholas Paraskevopoulos, Northrop Grumman's chief technology officer.
"Getting a laser beam on a spacecraft to point to a laser receiver on another spacecraft accurately enough with the right power levels, the right waveforms, etc.,-- it's not an easy thing," said General Atomics VP Nick Bucci.
Risk reduction missions this year "are separate flights to prove technologies" and not part of the planned 20-satellite Blackjack constellation, explains program manager Rusty Thomas.
On today’s battlefield, mobility isn’t optional - it’s mission-critical.
WASHINGTON: Northern Command head Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy says the key to winning tomorrow’s all-domain wars is predicting an adversary’s actions — as well as the impacts of US military responses — hours and even days in advance. The capability to perform such “predictive analysis” will be enabled by the US military’s Joint All-Domain Command and […]
"Upfront investments are necessary to break the vicious cycle in which current DOD high-value assets are stuck" to increase space resiliency, the Aerospace Corp. study argues.
DARPA's budget documents say cislunar orbit is the "new high ground" at risk of being taken over by US adversaries.
"I've never gotten a briefing from the Space Development Agency," Roper said, "so I don't know what their plan, I don't know what they're intending."