BOULDER Boulder entrepreneur George Stafford helped launch Blue Canyon Technologies LLC more than a decade ago, when the U.S. government was the only customer for any type of aerospace product.
Now, the small satellite manufacturer has multitudes of government, commercial and academic customers in a rapidly evolving and dynamic new market.
“The dynamics changed because of the entrance of more countries, companies and outside investment money for commercial enterprises. A lot of that has been driven by launch costs going down,” said Stafford, president and CEO of Blue Canyon Technologies and cofounder of the company with Matthew Beckner, chief operating officer, and Stephen Steg, chief technical officer.
Blue Canyon Technologies helps launch small satellite industry – BizWest bizwest.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bizwest.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has been awarded a Phase 3
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) contract to develop an additional six satellites for the Blackjack program. The company announced the award on Wednesday. A BCT spokesperson told
Via Satellite this contract is worth $26.5 million.
Blackjack is a DARPA program to leverage commercial Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband technology for a global high-speed network for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that can incorporate short design cycles and frequent technology upgrades.
This latest contract follows after BCT and DARPA completed the bus’s Critical Design Review in late 2020. BCT is currently building the first four satellites to be delivered by the close of 2021, under a $14.1 million contract won in July 2020. That contract came with a potential value of $99.4 million, and this additional $26.5 million contract is part of that award.
Elena Yur evna Gorina/Getty Images
UP TO SPEED: Rural broadband projects in Minnesota are set to meet the state’s goals for minimum upload and download internet speeds. More than $20 million has been awarded to provide high-speed access to communities in greater Minnesota.
Feb 11, 2021
Gov. Tim Walz announced that the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development will award grants totaling $20,645,425 to 39 projects under the state’s Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant program.
State grant dollars are matched by $33,695,279 in local funds, for a total investment in broadband infrastructure. The projects will bring broadband access to 6,922 businesses, homes and community institutions. This is the sixth year for the program.
By Doug Barrett
Jan 31, 2021 9:33 PM
U.S. consumers slowed their spending by 0.2% in December, cutting back for a second straight month. The decline reported today by the Commerce Department followed a seasonally adjusted 0.7% drop in November. It’s the latest sign that consumers, whose spending is the primary driver of the U.S. economy, are hunkered down and avoiding traveling, shopping and dining out.
The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes declined slightly for the fourth straight month, but it was still a record high for December. The National Association of Realtors says its index of pending sales dipped 0.3% to 125.5 in December, an all-time high. An index of 100 represents the level of contract activity in 2001.