Terran Orbital (NYSE:LLAP) Corporation announced mission success for the first pair of company-developed spacecraft operating in or around the geosynchronous orbit (GEO), a satellite belt uniquely located above Earth.
The Boca Raton, Florida-based company which enjoys a leading position among the big league of new space companies proliferating satellites into low earth orbit, built the two spacecraft for US aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT).
The Terran Orbital (NYSE:LLAP)-developed spacecrafts successfully completed their on-orbit demonstration of the Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) In-space Upgrade Satellite System, otherwise known as LM LINUSS, said the company.
The two spacecrafts, each consisting of a custom 12U solution based on Terran Orbital (NYSE:LLAP)’s heritage trestles platform, were successfully dispensed into orbit by Terran Orbital deployers in January and have since been operating in the GEO belt region.
Each spacecraft is equipped with a low-toxicity thruster system, a Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) built electro-optical payload deck, and fully redundant critical bus subsystems to ensure the safety of flight during Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO).
“With LM LINUSS operating near GEO, CAPSTONE orbiting the moon, and a fleet of Terran Orbital-developed low-earth-orbit spacecraft, we have proven that Terran Orbital busses can operate essentially anywhere,” said Terran Orbital co-founder and CEO Marc Bell.
“Working with Lockheed Martin is always a pleasure, and we are beyond grateful for the numerous opportunities they have given us. Together, we are charting the path for building constellations at scale, and are thrilled Lockheed Martin selected a Terran Orbital bus to propel this journey.”
LM LINUSS is one of several RPO missions Terran Orbital is supporting, including NASA’s CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstration (CPOD) mission, which is currently conducting RPO experiments in orbit, and IPERDRONE, a Tyvak International mission for the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
“Spacecraft RPO is one of Terran’s core competencies,” said Alex Pertica, vice president of Space Domain Awareness at Terran Orbital. “RPO requires very exacting standards, in hardware, software, and systems – and we have been building our bus platforms to bolster these standards since day one.”
LM LINUSS can be counted as two of the most capable pair of CubeSat currently in geosynchronous Earth orbit. This capability is driven by the high density of the Terran Orbital bus combined with the spacecraft’s payload accommodation and on-orbit processing, all factors that will enable wide-ranging future missions.
Terran Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and on-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding military, civil, and commercial customers.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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