Telesat’s LEO system to back DARPA’s Blackjack program

OTTAWA – Telesat’s low earth orbit satellite constellations may soon be used in future space-based communications by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).The Canadian satellite operator said that it has been awarded a contract by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) under its Blackjack program, an architecture demonstration of a proliferated small satellite constellation in LEO to provide global persistence, low latency communications, and rapid technology refresh. The investigations will include evaluating the advantages of DoD using the same spacecraft buses as those Telesat will use in its LEO constellation and having these future DoD spacecraft link to Telesat’s LEO constellation...