U.S. to launch military satellite from ISS

The Red-Eye-2 small spacecraft for experiments in the interests of the Defense Department’s office of advanced research projects, DARPA, is scheduled to be launched into orbit on June 17 from the International space station, NASA said.

The Agency’s website says that the satellite will be launched using the Canadian SSRMS manipulator, before taking it outside the station from the Japanese Kibo module.

Red-Eye-2 weighing 110 kilograms was delivered to the ISS by the American Cygnus cargo ship in February 2020. In the interests of DARPA, it will test satellite communications, on-Board computers, and thermal management technologies, Free News reported.

This is the second of three Red-Eye satellites. The first was launched in June 2019.

Currently, Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Wagner are working on the ISS, as well as American astronauts Christopher Cassidy, Douglas Hurley, and Robert Behnken.