New Glenn Will Lift Scout’s Space Domain Awareness Instrument

Blue Origin announced an agreement with Scout Space to transport one of its next-generation Owl space domain awareness (SDA) sensors aboard the Blue Ring’s first mission, slated to launch in Spring 2026. Blue Ring is the very maneuverable multi-mission spacecraft developed by Blue Origin for delivering payloads, infrastructure services, and hosting.

Blue Ring will initially be launched into a highly elliptical GTO, or geostationary transfer orbit used for the efficient transport of satellites to their eventual geostationary Earth orbits (GEO). Blue Ring will perform additional services upon reaching its GEO.

Paul Ebertz, SVP of Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems business unit said, "Integrating Scout’s Owl sensor on this first mission marks a significant step forward in advancing SDA capabilities and underscores our commitment to supporting the nation’s mission requirements. We’re thrilled to bring Blue Ring to market and support Scout with unmatched mission maneuverability, versatility, and capacity in GEO and beyond.”

Blue Ring is designed as a multi-mission vehicle to provide full-service payload delivery, hosting, and end-to-end mission operations. The vehicle is designed with an innovative and unprecedented delta-V capability of at least 3,000 m/s (4,000 m/s max) enabled by a blend of electric and chemical propulsion systems.

Its maneuverability will support a broad range of mission requirements in GEO and xGEO/Cislunar orbit, Mars, and beyond.

The spacecraft is capable of up to 4,000 kg (8,800 lb) of payload capacity across 13 ports. It also contains powerful onboard computing power and processing capabilities to enable extensive flexibility in mission design.

Scout Space’s Owl sensor is designed for real-time tracking, characterization, and assessment of space objects through its integrated advanced optical sensing, onboard AI-assisted processing, and autonomous decision-making to develop and deliver domain-wide space intelligence to support the U.S. Space Force’s space control mission.

Philip Hover-Smoot, CEO at Scout Space said, “We’ve always believed that no single company can bring the best space superiority capabilities to the market alone. We’re thrilled to work with Blue Origin to bring Scout’s secure solutions onboard this historic first Blue Ring mission.”

FMI:  www.blueorigin.com/ , www.scout.space/