Jay Clemens
Orbital Sciences has ordered Aerojet Rocketdyne electric propulsion subsystems for installation on its communications satellite platform.
Aerojet Rocketdyne will deliver the XR-5 subsystems over the next three years for the GEOStar-3 geostationary orbit satellite, Aerojet Rocketdyne said Tuesday.
The XR-5 subsystem comprises 5-kilowatt class Hall thrusters with flow regulation valves, power processing units with thruster selection units and related electrical harnessing.
Warren Yasuhara, vice president of space systems at Aerojet Rocketdyne, said the hall systems are designed for electric orbit raising and station-keeping of the commercial GEO comsats.
The GEOStar satellite system is designed for use in various communications services such as direct-to-home TV broadcasting, broadband connectivity, cable program distribution, business data network capacity and regional mobile communications.
