{"id":14732,"date":"2020-07-16T14:26:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T14:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/07\/16\/defense-innovation-unit-issues-contract-for-unmanned-orbital-outpost\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:32:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:32:46","slug":"defense-innovation-unit-issues-contract-for-unmanned-orbital-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2020\/07\/16\/defense-innovation-unit-issues-contract-for-unmanned-orbital-outpost\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense Innovation Unit issues contract for unmanned orbital outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Defense Innovation Unit has awarded Sierra Nevada Corporation a contract to build an orbital laboratory that would serve as a kind of unmanned space station, the company announced July 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The unmanned orbital outpost will be placed in low Earth orbit to be used for experiments and demonstrations. The autonomous, free flying vehicle will be able to host payloads and support space assembly and manufacturing, microgravity experimentation, logistics, training, testing and evaluations.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/space\/2020\/05\/07\/here-are-a-few-of-the-experiments-hitching-a-ride-on-the-air-forces-secret-space-plane\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/48967014702_74db520a1e_o.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Here are a few of the experiments hitching a ride on the Air Force\u2019s secret space plane<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">One experiment will take solar energy, convert it to radio frequency, and then beam it to earth where it can power U.S. military platforms.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the contract, Sierra Nevada Corporation will repurpose their Shooting Star transport vehicle into a scalable, autonomous space station that can be used for experiments and demonstrations. The Shooting Star vehicle is a 16-foot attachment to the company\u2019s Dream Chaser space plane that was developed for NASA Commercial Resupply Services 2 missions. The vehicle was initially designed to provide extra payload storage and cargo disposal upon re-entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re excited by the multi-mission nature of Shooting Star,\u201d Fatih Ozmen, SNC\u2019s chief executive, said in a statement. \u201cIt was originally developed for NASA resupply missions to the International Space Station, and since then we keep identifying new capabilities and solutions it offers to a wide variety of customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company\u2019s press release notes that while the initial orbital outpost will operate in LEO, future orbits could be placed in other orbits, including cislunar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe current Shooting Star is already designed with significant capabilities for an orbital outpost and by adding only a few components we are able to meet Department of Defense needs.\u201d added Steve Lindsey, senior vice president of strategy for SNC\u2019s space systems. \u201cWe are proud to offer our transport vehicle to DoD as a free-flying destination for experimentation and testing, expanding beyond its current payload service capabilities for Dream Chaser cargo missions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the original DIU solicitation released June 2019, orbital outposts will need to be established in low Earth orbit within 24 months of the award. A DIU spokesperson told C4ISRNET at the time that the \u201cthe prototype will explore the military utility of exclusive DoD access to an unmanned orbital platform in order to perform experiments with no risk to human crew or other non-DOD payloads.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sierra Nevada Corporation will repurpose their Shooting Star space vehicle into an unmanned orbital outpost for Department of Defense experimentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,163,36,23],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3385],"class_list":["post-14732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-space-report","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6PBTYDEMWJHSNNY3REBCZQIG24","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/07\/16\/defense-innovation-unit-issues-contract-for-unmanned-orbital-outpost\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Defense Innovation Unit issues contract for unmanned orbital outpost - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sierra Nevada Corporation will repurpose their Shooting Star space vehicle into an unmanned orbital outpost for Department of Defense experimentation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defense Innovation Unit issues contract for unmanned orbital outpost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sierra Nevada Corporation will repurpose their Shooting Star space vehicle into an unmanned orbital outpost for Department of Defense experimentation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2020\/07\/16\/defense-innovation-unit-issues-contract-for-unmanned-orbital-outpost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-16T14:26:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T17:32:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathan Strout\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathan Strout\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t        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