US Defense Innovation Unit Funds Three Projects To Support Military Operations In Space

Blue Origin project, one of the companies funded by DIU (photo: dock. DIU)

JAKARTA - The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), an organization from the US Department of Defense, announced that it would fund projects from three companies. This news was delivered on Wednesday, March 20.

The DIU said it needed logistical services that could support military operations beyond low-earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbits (GEO). DIU also requires m-OLV heavy utilities and fuel depots.

After looking for the right logistics service, DIU finally chose three companies that were deemed to be in accordance with their needs. The three companies are Blue Origin, Space Logistics, and Spacebilt.

"Each selected company for awards shows strong research and development investments in their particular solutions for use in commercial markets," said DIU, quoted from the official website.

The first company, Blue Origin, received a contract for the Dark-Sky 1 project to demonstrate a heavy utility OLV system. The project leverages the Blue Ring platform and is planned to launch it as a payload for a rideshare mission.

"Blue Origin is in the final stages of developing the Dark-Sky-1 mission system, which will demonstrate core mission operations and flight system capabilities," said DIU. The mission is expected to be ready to launch in July.

Space Logistics was selected as a provider of fuel technology in space. This Northrop Grumman subsidiary will provide technology in the form of Active Refueling Moule (ARM) and Passive Refueling Module (PRM).

The government will fund ARM and PM provided by Space Logistics. This orbit refueling system will include elements for fuel transfer as well as refueling payloads that handle fuel transfers.

The last contract was handed over to Spacebilt, formerly known as Skycorp. Through this third contract, DIU wants to validate Spacebilt's approach to Angkasa Assembly and Manufacturing to activate the company's m-OLV products.

"Spacebilt has grown towards products that can be mass produced, carrying out risk reduction missions to the International Space Station for their flight hardware, and commercially available avionic hardware maturity," explained DIU.