SSL highlights LADEE mission milestones and
lasercomm progress, supports NASA initiative to
partner with industry
Nov. 26, 2013
Space
Systems/Loral (SSL), highlighted its role in
supporting NASA's initiative to benefit from the
commercial space industry. Two NASA programs,
which recently reached important milestones,
benefited from commercial technology contribution
from SSL.
SSL provided the propulsion system
for NASA's Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment
Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft, which is managed by
NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field,
Calif., and currently is orbiting the moon.
Additionally, SSL was awarded the next phase of
hosted payload accommodation development for the
Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD),
which recently completed the important Preliminary
Design Review (PDR) process.
"SSL congratulates the
NASA Ames LADEE team on its tremendous successes,
which included perfect insertion into lunar orbit,"
said John Celli, president of SSL. "We'd also like
to congratulate the team from NASA Goddard on its
record setting demonstration of two-way laser
communications as well as completing its LCRD design
review."
Lunar Explorer
The LADEE spacecraft depended on the SSL-built
propulsion system to reach its lunar orbit on
Oct. 12. In its
LADEE updates, NASA stated that the Lunar Insertion
Maneuver was "very accurate, and required no course
adjustments." The update continued to say,
"this is impressive performance of the propulsion
system..."
The propulsion system is
based on the mission critical system used over many
years on the geostationary satellites that SSL
builds for television, radio, broadband internet,
meteorology and a host of other services.
There are currently 74 SSL-built satellites
operating in geosynchronous orbit today that use a
similar propulsion architecture.
"SSL has been an important
part of the team that created the LADEE spacecraft,"
said Butler Hine, LADEE Project Manager at NASA Ames
Research Center. "The commercial experience
that SSL brought to the team really enabled an
innovative approach for LADEE."
Laser Communications
The LADEE spacecraft carries the Lunar Laser
Communication Demonstration (LLCD) on board,
designed, built, and operated by
MIT's
Lincoln Laboratory which recently set
a record for transmitting data from the moon to
Earth. The test demonstrated high data rate
communications that have the potential to transform
communications from outer space. This
successful demonstration is a vital precursor to a
more comprehensive and enduring demonstration that
will be facilitated by SSL.
SSL partnered with NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center to place a Laser
Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), as a
hosted payload, on a commercial satellite to be
built by SSL. Sponsored by NASA's Space
Technology Mission Directorate and Human Exploration
and Operations Mission Directorate, LCRD is a
technology demonstration that combines commercial
and government developments. By hosting the LCRD
payload on a commercial communications satellite
built by SSL, this demonstration will be an enduring
test bed that helps transition optical
communications technology into operation. The LCRD
project recently completed its PDR on
Nov. 1, and SSL
was given the authorization to finalize the design
for accommodating the payload on its 1300 satellite
bus.
As the optical modules and
ground stations for LCRD are being developed, SSL is
working with its commercial customers to identify an
appropriate host satellite for the demonstration.
Laser communications technology is expected to
provide next generation capability for NASA
exploration missions and it may also hold
significant benefits for future commercial satellite
communications.
"SSL's performance on the
LCRD payload accommodation has met all of our
accommodation criteria and exceeded all of our
expectations," said
Mike Weiss, LCRD
Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center. "Companies with a commercial space
focus, such as SSL, are helping NASA to reduce costs
and maximize benefits while we continue to implement
game-changing new technologies."