Tag: DIUx
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Blue Origin postpones first launch of New Glenn rocket due to high seas for landing
Blue Origin’s New Glenn on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. (Blue Origin Image) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’s delaying the first-ever launch of its orbital-class New Glenn rocket due to unfavorable weather conditions for landing the first-stage booster. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36…
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Blue Origin plans to test Blue Ring space platform on Pentagon’s DarkSky-1 mission
An artist’s conception shows the Blue Ring logistics vehicle in orbit. (Blue Origin Illustration) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says that technology for its Blue Ring orbital platform will be put to the test during an upcoming mission sponsored by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit. Blue Ring is a multi-mission, multi-orbit vehicle that’s being…
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Microsoft Azure enlists generative AI to help Pentagon look for satellite imagery
The Department of Defense envisions linking multiple ground communication systems with diverse satellite networks. (Photo via Defense Innovation Unit) Can a chatbot help Pentagon planners find the satellite data they need to understand what’s happening in a global hotspot? Microsoft Azure Space recently showed the U.S. military how an application beefed up with AI could…
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How power is blazing a trail for America’s space effort — and for nuclear startups
An artist’s conception shows a nuclear thermal propulsion system at work in orbit (USNC-Tech Illustration) As more and more hardware goes into Earth orbit, and eventually to the moon and Mars, where will the power to run all those machines come from? That’s one of the questions under consideration at a State of the Space…
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Defense Innovation Unit explores Pacific Northwest’s national security tech frontier
Mike Madsen, the Defense Innovation Unit’s acting director, talks at a Seattle workshop. (NSIN via Twitter) If space is the next frontier for national security, then the Pacific Northwest may well be the new frontier for that next frontier. That’s the word from Steve “Bucky” Butow, an Air Force brigadier general who is now director…
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Microsoft and Amazon take on new roles in Pentagon’s space communication plans
The Pentagon is working with commercial ventures to upgrade space-based networks. (Microsoft Illustration) Microsoft Azure Space, Amazon Web Services and Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite network are now among the Pentagon’s partners in a campaign to upgrade space- and ground-based communications infrastructure for national security purposes. The Defense Innovation Unit has awarded contracts to those three…
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Pentagon boosts two Seattle ventures working on nuclear-powered prototypes for space applications
An artist’s conception shows a spacecraft powered by Ultra Safe Nuclear systems. (USNC-Tech Illustration) Two Seattle companies have won Pentagon contracts to develop nuclear-powered prototypes for space applications, with orbital demonstrations set for 2027. The Defense Innovation Unit says Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies has been tasked with demonstrating a chargeable, encapsulated nuclear radioisotope battery called…