In The News
ATC Completes Development Of
MISSE7 Experiment CMOS Image Sensor For NRL, Will Fly On International Space Station
Monday, 26 January 2009
Assurance Technology Corporation announced delivery of an
advanced CMOS Image Sensor to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for
integration into the MISSE7 Experiment that will fly on the International Space
Station (ISS) scheduled for launch in November 2009. This self contained instrument,
developed in 20 months, will measure the ambient radiation and the characteristics
of its 1.2 megapixel imaging array in the ISS radiation environment over its 19 month
mission. On board processing and analysis, a communications interface for commanding
and data downloads during orbit, and thermal control are also provided in this 7 lb,
15 Watt Sensor.
ATC Awarded Air Force Self-Awareness
Space Situation Awareness (SASSA) Contract
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center,
Space Superiority Systems Wing, announced today the award of a cost plus
incentive fee/fixed fee contract for $29 million to ATC for development of a
Self-Awareness Space Situations Awareness (SASSA) Demonstration System.
This acquisition is born out of the Air
Force's need to provide threat-warning instruments and sensors for our nation's
space-based assets. This two-year developmental project will work towards
demonstrating a viable sensing capability for high-value space assets,
including the integration of instruments and sensors for the detection,
assessment and notification of any attribute interference or attacks from
multiple threats.
ATC Completes Operationally Responsive
Space (ORS) Technology Advancement Demonstration
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
The
ATC Reconfigurable RF/Digital Processor (RDP) successfully demonstrated the ability to perform high
priority responsive space missions in support of tactical operations using
advanced low power on-orbit reprogrammable processing technologies. The RDP was developed by ATC for the Naval Research
Laboratory (NRL) and the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Technology
(ORSTECH) Program. These technologies have a wide range of space
and airborne applications, including the Air Force SASSA System, the Marine UAS
Software Reconfigurable Payload (SRP) System and similar reconfigurable systems
required for critical space and airborne missions.
NASA
Awards NOAA GOES-R Instrument Contract
(NASA Press Release, dated
August 24, 2006)
NASA,
in coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites
(GOES-R) Program, has selected Assurance Technology Corporation for a
$101.7 million dollar contract.
The
contract is for the Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS), which
will provide data for monitoring space environments as an instrument
on the next generation of GOES.
The
design and development of the SEISS instruments will be primarily
performed at the contractor's facility in Carlisle, Mass. Once
launched, the SEISS suite will be used primarily by NOAA's Space
Environment Center in Boulder, Colo. The center provides real-time
monitoring, forecasting and warnings of solar and geophysical events
and disturbances.
ATC Space
Environment Monitoring System Launched on GOES-N
GOES-13,
the latest in a series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites
(GOES), was successfully launched on May 24, 2006. GOES-13 was developed by
Boeing for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC) and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The GOES-13
instruments include the ATC Space Environment Monitoring (SEM) System, which measures
the energetic particle environment at geosynchronous orbit and the solar x-ray and
extreme ultraviolet radiation. The NOAA Space Environment Center (NOAA/SEC), the
nation's "space weather" center, issues alerts and forecasts for events such as
solar flares and geomagnetic storms based on the SEM System information.
This
information is important for military and civilian radio communication, satellite
communication and navigation systems, electric power networks, geophysical
exploration, shuttle and space station astronauts, high-altitude aviation and
scientific researchers. ATC's Space Instrumentation Group, formerly part of
GE/Panametrics, has provided similar instrumentation for the last nine
GOES Satellites.
Assurance Technology Corporation
Initiates NRL TES Contract
On 3 January 2006, Assurance
Technology Corporation (ATC) received authority to proceed on a five year contract awarded
by the Naval Research Laboratory valued at $117,348,187. Under this contract,
ATC will be providing NRL with Technical and Engineering Support Services for their Space,
Ground Station and Tactical C4I Systems research and development efforts.
ATC Space Environment Monitor launched
on NOAA-N
NOAA-N (now NOAA-18) was successfully
launched on May 20, 2005.
NOAA-N is the latest in a series of Polar
Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company
(LMSSC), under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC), with funding provided by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A Boeing Delta II carried the spacecraft
to sun-synchronous orbit.
NOAA-18 carries a Space Environment
Monitor (SEM), provided by Assurance Technology Corporation (ATC). The SEM measures charged
particles over an energy range of 50 eV to several hundred keV. These data provide
knowledge of solar terrestrial phenomena and warnings of solar wind occurrences
that may impair long-range communications, high-altitude operations, damage to
satellite circuits and solar panels, or cause changes in drag and magnetic
torque on satellites. ATC’s Space Instrumentation Group, formerly part of GE/Panametrics,
has provided SEMs for the last four POES spacecraft.
Other instruments on NOAA-18 include
the Advanced Very High
Resolution Radiometer (ITT A/CD), the High Resolution Infrared Radiation
Sounder (ITT A/CD), the Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (Northrup Grumman),
the Microwave Humidity Sounder (EADS Astrium Ltd.) and the Solar Backscatter
Ultraviolet Radiometer (Ball Aerospace). It also carries a Search and Rescue Repeater
(Canada/EMS), a Search and
Rescue Processor (CNES/France/Thales), a Data Collection System
(CNES/France/Thales) and Digital Data Recorders (L-3 Communications).
ATC member of
NRL Midway Research Center Team to win Top 5 Department of Defense Programs Award
(Announced in September 2005 Issue of Crosstalk
Magazine)
"Top 5 Department of Defense Program Awards 2004
The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense and the National Defense Industrial
Association present the Top 5 Department of Defense Program Awards 2004. These
programs were chosen for their excellence and success at using well-defined and
proven processes to develop, manage, and integrate software into deliverable systems...
Near Imaging Field Tower Implementation
Agency: Naval Research Laboratory Midway Research Center
Industry Contractor: Joint effort between Mnemonics, Inc., Assurance Technology Corp.,
Harris Corp., Blaseware, Analex, and SAIC"
NOAA Study Contracts Awarded for GOES-R
(Space News Briefs, 17 December 2004)
Lockheed Martin Corp. and Assurance Technology Corp.
each won study contracts worth about $2 million to work on designs for instruments for new geostationary orbiting
weather satellites, according to a Dec. 17 news release from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
The two companies will work on designs for the Space
Environment In-Situ Suite of instruments for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)-R
series of spacecraft over the course of the next nine months. The GOES-R satellites are expected to begin
launching in 2012.
ATC Acquires GE Panametrics Space
Instrumentation Group
On December 3, 2004
Assurance Technology Corporation (ATC) purchased
the General Electric (GE) Panametrics Space Instrumentation Group (SIG) and its design, fabrication and
test equipment and resources. The SIG augments the existing ATC high-reliability space systems and
subsystems development capabilities, specifically adding another dimension to the ATC capabilities to
develop and integrate spacecraft payloads and on-orbit experiments. The SIG is the only group that
has designed and fabricated space particle sensor systems for the NOAA GOES Program sensor systems;
the SIG has and is providing the Space Environment Monitoring (SEM) instrument packages for the NOAA
operational polar orbiting satellite fleet.
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