- DARPA is asking industry for ideas on rapidly restoring satellite services
- The agency is looking for ways to bring degraded communications, navigation and surveillance back to minimum levels on tactical timelines
- It listed dozens of areas of interest, from modular satellite designs to in-orbit manufacturing and proliferated mesh networks, with responses due July 8
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking industry ideas for quickly rebuilding satellite services within hours to weeks after an enemy attack or orbital debris knocks them out.
DARPA issued a request for information on Friday via SAM.gov. Responses are due July 8.
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What Is DARPA Trying to Solve?
The agency points to competitors pursuing anti-satellite weapons, including direct strikes, signal jamming and spoofing, and cyberattacks, that could affect military communications, navigation and timing, and intelligence and surveillance. It is looking for ways to bring degraded services back to at least minimum levels on tactical timelines, whether the loss stems from an attack, a debris collision or a sudden surge in demand.
DARPA listed dozens of areas where it wants input, including modular and plug-and-play satellite designs, reconfigurable software-defined payloads and rapid manufacturing on the ground and in orbit. It is also interested in very low Earth orbit operations, proliferated mesh architectures, alternative navigation and timing, and the supply-chain and production bottlenecks that slow reconstitution.
Respondents are asked to map their proposed technology against existing options on a “white space” chart, a format DARPA borrowed from one of its radio-frequency filter programs to highlight research gaps. The agency encouraged responses from outside the traditional defense base and pointed newcomers to its DARPAConnect resources.
How Does This Tie to Past Responsive Space Efforts?
The RFI extends the Pentagon’s push for what the military calls “tactically responsive space.” DARPA cited the 2023 Victus Nox mission, in which the Space Force launched a satellite 27 hours after issuing the order, beating the prior responsive-launch record by more than two weeks. That Victus Nox spacecraft, built by Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems and flown on a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, reached full operability about 37 hours after liftoff. The notice also referenced Space Systems Command’s Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve, which lines up commercial satellite capacity through standing contracts for use during a crisis.
The effort fits a broader reorientation of DARPA’s space portfolio under Director Stephen Winchell, who has argued the agency should serve as a bridge to fast-moving commercial space rather than a home for one-off experiments, SpaceNews reported. DARPA has separately advanced work on building large structures in orbit through its NOM4D program and is weighing new challenges in areas such as cislunar navigation.
The agency’s share of the FY 2027 budget request includes about $1.8 billion for advanced technology development. Winchell said he proposed devoting more of it to space.
