DARPA assembling team of Blackjack players

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Commercial space companies regard Blackjack as a huge opportunity to break into the military market, and have urged DARPA to not allow Blackjack to turn into a typical plodding Pentagon procurement program.

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DARPA’s Blackjack program will evaluate if national security space missions can use a networked constellation of smallsats in low Earth orbit instead of large, geostationary satellites. Credit: DARPA

Telesat wins study contract for DARPA’s experimental constellation

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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded satellite operator Telesat a contract to study the use of commercial buses in the agency’s experimental low-Earth-orbit constellation program known as Blackjack.

Commercial Military BlackjackDARPATelesat
George Stafford, Blue Canyon president and chief executive, at the Small Satellite Conference at Utah State University in Logan, Utah Aug. 7, 2018. Credit: SpaceNews/Keith Johnson

Blue Canyon Technologies wins constellation contract

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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded BCT a contract to define bus and payload requirements for Blackjack, a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit to offer persistent global communications and Earth observation.

Commercial Military BlackjackBlue Canyon TechnologiesDARPAMilitary SpaceNGSO

Air Force could assume bigger role in DARPA’s Blackjack program

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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Blackjack is small compared to traditional military space procurements but it is one of the most talked about space projects.

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