Defense Innovation Unit awards three contracts for space logistics technologies

The Pentagon’s commercial technology arm, the Defense Innovation Unit, announced March 20 it is funding three projects to explore ways to create a more robust space infrastructure that can support military operations beyond low Earth orbit. The projects were awarded to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and Spacebilt. “Each of the companies selected for an award showed strong research and development investments into their particular solutions for use in the commercial market,” said DIU. DIU is partnering with Blue Origin on a space mission called Dark-Sky 1 that will send to orbit a heavy multi-orbit space tug based on the company’s Blue Ring platform. The vehicle will be launched as a rideshare payload on a U.S. Space Force national security mission. Dark-Sky 1 is jointly funded by DIU and Blue Origin. “This effort will be ready for launch in July of this year,” a DIU spokesperson told SpaceNews. “Blue Origin is in the final stages of developing the Dark-Sky 1 mission system, which will demonstrate core mission operation and flight system capabilities.” “The lessons learned from this DS-1 mission will provide a leap forward for Blue Ring and its ability to provide greater access to multiple orbits,” said Paul Ebertz, senior vice president of Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems.

Blue Origin says its Blue Ring orbital transfer vehicle will be able to host more than 3,000 kilograms of payload, operating in Earth orbit through cislunar space. Credit: Blue Origin

On-orbit refueling, manufacturing

Another contract jointly funded by DIU and Space Force is for in-space refueling technologies from Space Logistics, Northrop Grumman’s in-space servicing subsidiary. The government is funding integration of the company’s Active Refueling Moule (ARM) and Passive Refueling Module (PRM) in military spacecraft. These are interfaces to enable docking and transferring of fuel. The PRM will fly on a Space Force operational mission and will be integrated on the company’s new servicing vehicle, called Mission Robotics Vehicle.

A third contract was awarded to reusable spacecraft manufacturer Spacebilt, previously known as Skycorp. DIU wants to validate the company’s approach and methods for in-space assembly and manufacturing for DoD use cases.

“Since award, Spacebilt has progressed toward a mass manufacturable product, conducted risk reduction missions to the International Space Station for their flight hardware, and maturity of their commercially available avionics hardware,” DIU said.

Spacebilt is targeting a late 2026 launch of its multi-orbit logistics vehicle that is launched in a protective container and assembled on orbit.

Established in 2015, DIU acts as a bridge between the Department of Defense and the commercial tech sector. It identifies promising technologies with potential military applications and streamlines the often-bureaucratic acquisition process.

Defense Innovation Unit solicits new round of proposals for space network project

The Defense Innovation Unit issued a new solicitation for proposals from private companies for a project known as the Hybrid Space Architecture, an initiative launched in 2021 to mesh commercial satellite broadband innovations with military networks. DIU is working with the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory on efforts to connect satellite networks and ground communications systems so military users can get data faster and more securely than is currently possible. Based in Mountain View, California, DIU was established in 2015 to help DoD access and integrate commercial technologies from startup companies and other non-traditional defense contractors. The organization serves as a bridge between defense agencies and commercial tech companies. The Hybrid Space Architecture aims to take advantage of commercial satellite broadband services, in-space laser communication, cloud computing, quantum-secure encryption and other innovations.

Aalyria's Spacetime is a software platform for orchestrating networks of ground stations, aircraft, satellites, ships, and urban meshes. Credit: Aalyria

Eight vendors so far selected

DIU in 2022 selected eight companies to work on the project: Aalyria, Anduril, Atlas Space Operations, Enveil. SpiderOak Mission Systems, Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Microsoft Azure Space. Companies get contracts to prototype concepts so their value can be evaluated.

The new solicitation released Nov. 29 focuses on four key areas: persistent sensing, data transport, high-performance edge computing and data fusion. Proposals are due Dec. 11.

Persistent sensing includes commercial solutions for space-based sensing, for routing and managing commercial collection requests, and for accessing commercial sensor data.

Data transport focuses on free space optical components that are scalable to enable low latency, persistent communications.

High performance edge computing includes commercial solutions necessary for the autonomous processing of advanced analytics and algorithms at the edge, for more timely delivery of information to users.

Data fusion focuses on secure ways to aggregate data to enable modeling, simulation and mission planning.