Andrews Space Awarded Contract to Develop Plug-and-Play Spacecraft Subsystems

By DE Editors

A contract has been awarded to Andrews Space (Andrews; Seattle,WA) by Star Technologies, Inc. to develop plug-and-play spacecraft subsystems and demonstrate integrated spacecraft capability. Valued at more than $1.5M, the contract terms state that Andrews will add the functionality to support plug-and-play interfaces into its existing line of spacecraft subsystem elements that include flight computers, power distribution units, control moment gyros (CMGs), reaction wheels, and sensors.

In a real-time hardware in the loop environment, Andrews conducts full motion spacecraft mission simulations using a control room and flat floor, which are currently in development at its Andrews Rapid Prototyping Lab near Seattle, Washington. The spacecraft subsystems are integrated into a five degree of freedom (5-DOF) spacecraft testbed to demonstrate end-to-end system functionality.

Star Technologies’ integrated spacecraft development software suite, Spacecraft Design Tool – SDT, will be integrated with the spacecraft simulators as part of the real-time mission simulator environment to simulate satellite missions. 

In part, the purpose of the contract is an effort by the Air Force Research Laboratory to train operators in ORS technologies.

For information, visit Andrews Space.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.