The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) last week said it is working with three companies to provide in-space logistics services between orbits to further Defense Department efforts for low-cost responsive access to orbits beyond low Earth orbit (LEO).
Separately, DIU last week said it has selected Firefly Aerospace for its Sinequone effort, which calls for the company to deliver three to six space vehicles across two demonstration flights to support missions beyond Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), called xGEO.
Firefly will first conduct a trade study on its capabilities to rapidly launch its Elytra orbital vehicle to xGEO. Elytra will be lofted to space by Firefly’s Alpha launch vehicle.
Once the trade study is completed and approved by DIU, Firefly will have 18 months to conduct its first launch, with the goal to reduce the time to deliver the next mission. The deliveries to xGEO include cislunar space.
Firefly last September successfully launched the Space Force’s VIXTUS NOX tactically responsive mission within 27 hours of launch notice. For that mission, an Alpha launch vehicle lifted a Millennium Space Systems-built satellite into LEO for a space domain awareness mission. Millennium is a business unit of Boeing [BA].
DIU said the Sinequone effort will prototype commercial launch and orbital transfer systems to deliver capabilities to xGEO, cislunar space, or both. The organization received 112 solution briefs from 84 companies to participate in Sinequone.
For the multi-orbit logistics vehicles (m-OLVs), DIU awarded contracts to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] Space Logistics subsidiary, and Spacebilt.
Blue Origin will demonstrate a heavy utility m-OLV system using the company’s Blue Ring platform that is designed for multi-orbit mobility. The company is completing development of its DarkSky-1 mission for DIU, which will demonstrate Blue Ring’s operational capabilities and core flight systems.
The DS-1 mission will fly on a National Security Space Launch in support of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space Mission.
Space Logistics will supply its Active Refueling Moule and Passive Refueling Module (PRM), which will fly on an operational mission for Space Systems Command. The PRM will also be flown on the Space Logistics Mission Robotics Vehicle for the command.
Spacebilt is working toward a launch in the fourth quarter of 2026 for the first m-OLV STARcraft to be used for in space assembly and manufacturing.