Apr 5 2006
Starsys Inc., a SpaceDev Company has been awarded two contracts totaling $2.45 million from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate, for continued development of deployable boom structures for satellites. Both awards are Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts resulting from design and trade study work completed during Phase I SBIRs.
Mark Sirangelo, SpaceDev’s Chief Executive Officer said, “This is an excellent example of the value of Starsys to SpaceDev’s future. The results of this effort will provide us a clear advantage in this very exciting sector of advanced spacecraft development and is highly synergistic with many of our future space programs and products.”
Deployable booms are innovative mechanical systems that unfold from a spacecraft to form large stable structures used to position instruments and sensors. These systems enable the launch and deployment of large aperture sensors – in some cases using small spacecraft. The AFRL contracts focus on the design and development of flight experiments to validate innovative and enabling deployable space structures using several unique boom architectures. SpaceDev expects such deployable technologies to be commercialized and implemented on multiple programs.
Robert Vacek, President of Starsys further commented, “These contract awards provide Starsys the opportunity to further advance its innovative deployable structures technology and provide a platform to demonstrate several mission-enabling technologies important to the Department of Defense, Civil, and Commercial markets.”
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