WASHINGTON -- NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) announced Thursday they signed an agreement to expand NASA's work on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, an ESA-led mission launching in 2028 that will search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

With this memorandum of understanding, the NASA Launch Services Program will procure a U.S. commercial launch provider for the Rosalind Franklin rover. The agency will also provide heater units and elements of the propulsion system needed to land on Mars. A new instrument on the rover will be the first drill to a depth of up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) deep below the surface to collect ice samples that have been protected from surface radiation and extreme temperatures.

Through an existing, separate partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), NASA is contributing key components to the Rosalind Franklin rover's primary science instrument, the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer, that will search for the building blocks of life in the soil samples.

Source: NASA
Associated URL: https://science.nasa.gov/mars

BOCA RATON, Fla.-- Terran Orbital Corporation has been selected by Lockheed Martin to produce 18 satellite buses for their recent Space Development Agency (SDA) Tranche 2 (T2) Tracking Layer contract.

Lockheed Martin will provide the SDA with 16 wide field-of-view missile warning/missile tracking space vehicles with infrared sensors and two vehicles with missile defense infrared sensors that can generate fire control-quality tracks to provide preliminary missile defense mission capabilities. Each Lockheed Martin-built T2 Tracking Layer satellite will incorporate a Terran Orbital bus.

The T2 Tracking Layer will accelerate the capability to provide global, persistent indications, detection, warning, and tracking of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems. It will also deliver preliminary missile defense capability by incorporating fire control quality sensors in the constellation.

These space vehicles will be manufactured at Terran Orbital's advanced robotic space vehicle manufacturing facilities located in California.

Source: www.terranorbital.com.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Redwire Corporation announced Phantom, a new European Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) spacecraft platform. Phantom is being developed at Redwire’s facility in Belgium and is designed to carry out a wide array of intelligence, Earth science, and communications missions. Phantom joins Redwire’s American-built VLEO spacecraft platform, SabreSat, that was recently unveiled.

Phantom, like its American counterpart, is intended to fill many different roles in a reliable and cost-effective way. Leveraging over four decades of heritage in satellite design, development and in-orbit operations, Phantom has an aerodynamic design that reduces propellant requirements, and could allow the satellite to stay in VLEO for up to five years. The design also uses standardized off-the-shelf hardware to reduce manufacturing costs and, with a total anticipated spacecraft mass of less than 300 kg, is compatible with existing small satellite launchers.

Redwire will advance Phantom’s design and development through the European Space Agency’s VLEO mission: Skimsat, on which Redwire is working together with Thales Alenia Space in the United Kingdom. The main goals of Skimsat are boosting satellite sustainability and mission performance while reducing spacecraft mass and mission cost by enabling sustained operational capability at lower altitudes. In addition, the Skimsat platform design team seeks to improve key elements such as overall system performance, subsystem modularity, supply chain sustainability and safety of operations in VLEO.

The strategic significance of VLEO is growing for Earth science, intelligence, communications, and defense and security applications. While low Earth (LEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) orbits are becoming increasingly congested and contested, spacecraft in VLEO operate in a relatively unimpaired environment. Bridging the gap between air and space, VLEO spacecraft fly above airborne anti-access areas while operating significantly closer to the Area of Responsibility on the ground than existing satellites. Additionally, unlike LEO and GEO, debris in VLEO deorbits in hours or days rather than in decades or more.

With Phantom and SabreSat, Redwire is pioneering a new frontier in space. These flexible, resilient, and cost-effective spacecraft will be useful for applications ranging from communications and space domain awareness to high-resolution Earth imaging. These innovative designs build on Redwire’s heritage as a leader in the space economy and are paving the way for a new market for VLEO satellites.

Source: Redwire
Associated URL: https://ir.redwirespace.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/121/redwire-announces-development-of-new-european-built-very