In The News

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.