Aces 1, 2, 3, 4

Aces 1, 2, 3, 4 are a technology demonstration satellites conducted under DARPA's Blackjack program. The four Aces satellites will demonstrate SEAKR payloads and CACI optical terminals.

Originally envisioned as a 20-satellite constellation with different types of mission payloads, Blackjack has been reduced in scope and will only deploy four spacecraft.

The four identical Blackjack satellites were constructed on commercial Saturn-class buses manufactured by Blue Canyon, a Raytheon Technologies subsidiary. Blue Canyon Technologies was awarded a $14.1 million contract by DARPA in 2020 to manufacture four satellites. The contract included $99 million in options for up to 20 satellites. Small satellite buses of the Saturn class can transport payloads weighing up to 200 kg.

Each Blackjack satellite is equipped with a Pit Boss data processing node and a Storm King radio-frequency payload developed by SEAKR Engineering, a Raytheon subsidiary. CACI supplied four laser communications terminals for each satellite.

The four satellites were launched on the Transporter-8 ride-share mission on a . The satellites will undergo several months of commissioning, followed by orbit raising, and then start demonstrations of interactions involving proliferated satellite architectures.