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Aces 1, 2, 3, 4 are a technology demonstration satellites conducted under DARPA's Blackjack program. The four Aces satellites will demonstrate SEAKR payloads and CACI optical terminals.
Originally envisioned as a 20-satellite constellation with different types of mission payloads, Blackjack has been reduced in scope and will only deploy four spacecraft.
The four identical Blackjack satellites were constructed on commercial Saturn-class buses manufactured by Blue Canyon, a Raytheon Technologies subsidiary. Blue Canyon Technologies was awarded a 14.1millioncontractbyDARPAin2020tomanufacturefoursatellites.Thecontractincluded14.1 million contract by DARPA in 2020 to manufacture four satellites. The contract included 14.1millioncontractbyDARPAin2020tomanufacturefoursatellites.Thecontractincluded99 million in options for up to 20 satellites. Small satellite buses of the Saturn class can transport payloads weighing up to 200 kg.
Each Blackjack satellite is equipped with a Pit Boss data processing node and a Storm King radio-frequency payload developed by SEAKR Engineering, a Raytheon subsidiary. CACI supplied four laser communications terminals for each satellite.
The four satellites were launched on the Transporter-8 ride-share mission on a . The satellites will undergo several months of commissioning, followed by orbit raising, and then start demonstrations of interactions involving proliferated satellite architectures.
Nation:
USA
Type / Application:
Technology
Operator:
DARPA
Contractors:
Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT), SEAKR Engineering, CACI