National Space Symposium Show News - April 7-10, 2008 - (Page 11)

SATELLITES • HARDWARE A Bad Day In Space Is a Very Bad Day There are good days in space, and occasionally bad days. And it doesn’t take much to make a bad day very bad indeed. That’s why Jim Maser, president of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, is focused on mission success. Rocketdyne, he notes, has been running a mission success rate of 100%, even as launch rates increase and it increases production of its engines. Jim Maser. “That’s been paying off, and allows us to look to growth and new business,” he told Show News. Rocketdyne has 28 launches scheduled this year, and achieved a triple in one week last month when it powered the shuttle, a Delta V and a Delta II into space. “I would love to see three launches every week,” he joked. More down to Earth, Rocketdyne last year won $2 billion in new contracts: $975 million to sustain the Space Shuttle through its scheduled retirement in 2010, and $1.2 billion to develop the 300,000 pounds thrust liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen J-2X for the upper stages of the “Back to the Moon” Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles. Maser, former president and COO of SpaceX, believes that very few, maybe only one, private space launch company will succeed. “Eventually we would like to play a role in that,” he said, “to combine our incredibly reliable heritage with an approach that is as cost effective as required to offer those services commercially.” September 18 launch of a Delta II rocket carrying DigitalGlobe WorldView-1 satellite (see page 10) Astrium for Eutelsat KA-SAT EADS Astrium has been tapped by Eutelsat to build a nextgeneration satellite, said to be the first multi-beam European satellite to operate exclusively in the Ka-band, to provide broadband and broadcast services across Europe. KA-SAT will be launched in 2010 to geostationary orbit. Based on the Astrium’s Eurostar E3000, it will operate more than 80 spot beams simultaneously, which makes it the largest multi-beam Ka-band satellite ever ordered worldwide. It is the 17th satellite commissioned by Eutelsat from Astrium, and the 23rd Eurostar E3000. With eight commercial GEO communications satellites won in 2007, Astrium claims the world lead in terms of satellite orders. Hardened Hardware from Honeywell Honeywell (Booth 502) is promoting radiation-hardened electronic components. The new HX5000 application specific integrated circuit “provides outstanding reliability for military and commercial space applications,” said senior business director Keith Nootbaar. It also uses less power and weighs less than competing ASICs. Honeywell is also talking up two new radiation hardened integrated memory circuits based on the company’s QML-certified, 150 nanometer radiation hardened Silicon-On-Insulator process. “Honeywell’s HXSR1608 16 million bit (16Mb) SRAM (shown) is designed for low voltage systems operating in radiation-hardened environments, and stores four times the information of previous generation SRAMs while maintaining full strategic radiation hardness,” Nootbaar said. A new 4Mb SRAM can cut power requirements and costs as a drop-in replacement for previous generation products, he said. Second COSMO-SkyMed Satellite The second satellite of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation, designed and manufactured by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor, was launched from Vandenberg by a Delta II rocket in December. The COSMO-SkyMed system, made up of four radar satellites, is the first dual use Earth Observation constellation able to operate in all weather and light conditions. Orbital Gets DARPA F6 Contract Orbital Sciences (Booth 501), has been selected to develop a Phase 1 concept for System F6 (Future Fast, Flexible, Fractionated, Free-Flying Spacecraft united by Information eXchange). The goal is to demonstrate a satellite architecture in which traditional “monolithic” spacecraft are replaced by clusters of spacecraft modules, Orbital says. “F6 has the potential to be a gamechanging event in the history of military space systems in the same way that the internet revolutionized data communications,” said Orbital national security systems vp Gregg Burgess. Orbital’s Optus D-2 satellite is shown here. Orion Takes Shape in Virginia Agency photo shows NASA Langley’s Kevin Johnson working on a simulated Orion crew module for testing the Launch Abort System at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico this year. The actual Orion space vehicle is being built by Lockheed Martin (Booth 500) with cockpit avionics by Honeywell (Booth 502). April 2008 11 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of National Space Symposium Show News - April 7-10, 2008

Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008 Critical Questions Loom Beyond the Rocket Motor New GPS for the USAF Generals Have Their Say 2,500 Years in Space Virgin Senses Sea-Change Technology Spin-Offs

National Space Symposium Show News - April 7-10, 2008

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