Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says that its Blue Ring orbital platform will be put to the test during an upcoming mission sponsored by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Blue Ring is a multi-mission, multi-orbit vehicle that’s being developed to facilitate logistical services in orbit. The Pentagon-backed mission, known as DarkSky-1, will demonstrate Blue Origin’s flight systems, including space-based data processing and storage capabilities, ground-based radiometric tracking and Blue Ring’s telemetry, tracking and command hardware, also known as TT&C.
“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, bringing us closer to our vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth,” Paul Ebertz, senior vice president of Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems business unit, said today in a news release.
Blue Origin said DarkSky-1 is expected to be launched as a payload on a future national-security space launch manifested by the U.S. Space Force. It said the launch service provider and the specific time frame for launch have not been disclosed; however, a license application filed with the Federal Communications Commission says the launch is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year.
The application says that the spacecraft will remain attached to the launch vehicle’s upper stage and trace an elliptical orbit ranging in altitude between 2,500 and 21,000 kilometers (1,550 to 13,000 miles). Mission duration would be no more than 12 hours, Blue Origin says in the application.
Although Blue Origin didn’t specify the cost of the mission, contract filings show that the Defense Department has awarded the company $4.9 million for the development of multi-orbit logistics vehicles.
We’ve reached out to Blue Origin for further information and will update this report with any response.