WASHINGTON — The subsequent launch by Firefly Aerospace, scheduled for December, can be an electronically steerable antenna payload designed by Lockheed Martin for a know-how demonstration.
Lockheed Martin in June introduced it awarded Firefly a contract to launch a small satellite tv for pc. The corporate on Nov. 27 disclosed it’s launching a spacecraft of just below 300 kilos carrying a newly designed electronically steerable antenna. The payload was built-in on a Terran Orbital Nebula bus.
Electronically steered antennas do not need shifting elements and might monitor a number of satellites concurrently. They’re in rising demand for broadband communications purposes akin to in-flight satellite tv for pc connectivity. Utilizing digital beam-forming know-how, digital antennas enable satellites to steer communication beams to focus bandwidth on high-traffic areas.
Lockheed Martin plans to reveal it will possibly calibrate and activate the antenna sooner than it has been potential earlier than, mentioned Paul Pelley, senior director of world safety at Lockheed Martin House.
“This payload was particularly designed for mission velocity in house purposes,” Pelley mentioned. “The aim is to launch this payload into orbit and show that we will calibrate it and make it operational sooner than earlier sensors. The satellite tv for pc additionally is very producible, that means we will make them faster with commercially accessible know-how.”
Extra demonstrations deliberate
The December mission is certainly one of a number of house know-how demonstrations that Lockheed Martin is funding with inside sources to “showcase new, mature know-how and to reaffirm we’re companions within the authorities’s missions,” Pelley mentioned.
“What we hear from our prospects is that they want mission velocity,” he added. “We imagine our space-focused electronically steerable antennas are versatile, highly effective sensors, which fulfill the necessity for elevated operational tempo.”
Different house experiments Lockheed Martin plans to launch embrace Pony Categorical 2, to reveal mesh networking throughout satellites, and the Tactical Satellite tv for pc, which is able to reveal on-orbit processing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
The corporate in November launched and examined two cubesats in geostationary orbit to reveal in-orbit servicing applied sciences.
