Blue Origin today announced that it will demonstrate the Blue Ring mobility spacecraft operations and core flight systems with the upcoming DarkSky-1 mission.
Blue Ring is designed to provide commercial and government customer services for missions in medium Earth orbit to the Cislunar region and beyond.
It brings various services such as span hosting, transportation, refueling, data rely, and logistics including an in-space cloud computing system. According to Blue Origin, the Blue Ring can carry more than 3,000 kilograms of payload and mission customizations.
Blue Ring’s delta-v access allows it to enter multiple orbits. Furthermore, the spacecraft can provide in-space processing and access to onboard data storage to conduct a successful mission.
The DarkSky-1 mission is a collaboration between Blue Origin and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which is also sponsoring this launch.
Blue Origin Blue Ring (Image Credit: Blue Origin)
The Blue Ring’s demonstration includes space-based processing capabilities, telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) hardware, and ground-based radiometric tracking.
This collaboration between Blue Origin and DIU comes under Other Transaction Agreements including in-flight validation of Blue Ring’s orbital payload and mission operation system.
In addition, the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space Mission Manifest Office allowed the DS-1 mission to fly on a National Security Space Launch.
Launch:
Blue Origin said the Blue Ring DarkSky-1 mission will be hosted on the upper stage of a future National Security Space Launch. However, data and time have not been revealed.
(source – Blue Origin)