DARPA scales back Blackjack space project.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has downsized its Blackjack experiment, which aims to prove the utility of commercial space technologies for military applications, from a 20-satellite constellation to only four spacecraft. The four identical Blackjack satellites were launched on June 12 and will undergo several months of commissioning before starting demonstrations of interactions involving proliferated satellite architectures. The satellites were built on commercial Saturn-class buses made by Blue Canyon Technologies and have payloads made by SEAKR Engineering and CACI. DARPA does not expect to add more satellites to the experiment beyond the four that launched on Monday.