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Magellan Aerospace to Provide Satellite Avionics Subsystems for CHORUS, MDA’s Next Generation Commercial Earth Observation Mission

February 09, 2022

Magellan Aerospace Corporation  announced a contract award from MDA Ltd. to provide spacecraft avionics for their next Earth observation mission named CHORUS. The new spacecraft builds on MDA’s RADARSAT heritage and will continue the work of RADARSAT-2, which remains operational serving its worldwide customer base. The avionics subsystems for CHORUS will be developed at Magellan’s Winnipeg facility, home of western Canada’s Advanced Satellite Integration Facility.

Magellan has expertise in the development of satellites buses and spacecraft avionics. In 2019, Magellan delivered three satellite buses for the Canadian Space Agency’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission under subcontract from MDA. These satellites, launched into orbit in June 2019, combine the Magellan satellite buses and the MDA C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload.

For MDA’s CHORUS mission, Magellan will be responsible for the design, manufacture, test, and delivery of the bus avionics system for the C-band SAR satellite. The bus avionics include the satellite bus power control and distribution, communications, attitude control, orbit determination, and on-board telemetry data collection. Key avionics deliverables include Magellan's Power Control Unit and Command and Data Handling Unit.

Mr. Phillip C. Underwood, Magellan’s President and CEO said, “Magellan’s Winnipeg facility has a legacy for quality space systems that began in 1959 with the first Black Brant rocket launch and has grown to include five spacecraft currently orbiting Earth that are meeting or exceeding operational requirements. Magellan is pleased to contribute to MDA’s CHORUS mission that will provide valuable synthetic aperture radar data to customers around the globe.”