The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has once again partnered with Telesat’s subsidiary, Telesat U.S. Services, as part of its Blackjack program. DARPA is part of a large group of organizations looking to see what capabilities Telesat’s low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation and LEO technologies might offer them.
The contract awarded to Telesat U.S. Services is a follow-on to its 2018 Blackjack Phase 1 program contract for system engineering and interface definition that focused on the Telesat LEO spacecraft buses and Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISL).
The DARPA Blackjack program is looking at developing and demonstrating elements for a global high-speed network in LEO as critical assets traditional positioned in geosynchronous orbit are vulnerable to attack.
How DARPA frames the current disposition of assets in geosynchronous orbit is telling. “In the increasingly contested space environment, these exquisite, costly, and monolithic systems have become vulnerable targets that would take years to replace if degraded or destroyed.”
That mantra is also a now a familiar characterization used by Canada’s Department of National Defence and the reason in part why it is going forward with programs like Project Grey Jay.
The new contract awarded to Telesat U.S. as part of the Phase 2 of the Blackjack program would see them “deliver two spacecraft buses to DARPA in less than one year for a ‘risk reduction’ flight to test OISL communications with government payloads in orbit and to demonstrate OISL interoperability with different hardware.” The contract is valued at US$18.3 million.
Of interest is the fact that if DARPA chooses to go forward with a Blackjack Constellation, Telesat is in-line for a follow-on contract worth up to US$175.6 million “to fully populate the Blackjack constellation.” Of significance, while the current Phase 2 program is using an Airbus platform, if DARPA moves forward with a Blackjack Constellation, a Telesat spokesperson told SpaceQ that the platform would be the same one used as their proposed Telesat LEO Constellation which is a different design than the platform for the DARPA Phase 2 contract.
Telesat has yet to announce who the prime contractor of Telesat LEO would be. The decision is between a joint bid of Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence and Space versus Maxar Technologies. In an August earnings call, Maxar CEO Dan Jablonsky seemed to indicate that Maxar wasn’t counting on wining the Telesat contract. Regardless of who may win a Telesat LEO constellation contract, an additional contract for a Blackjack Constellation would certainly benefit the supply chain, including any Canadian suppliers.