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Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has delivered two phased array antenna engineering development units for the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle to prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
The Orion PAA design leverages three dozen Ball Aerospace phased array designs delivered for space, airborne, ground and marine applications, as well as an additional 11 fixed beam array products delivered for space.
“The development and delivery of these EDUs represents a significant milestone as NASA enters the next arena of human space flight,” said Jim Oschmann, vice president and general manager of antenna and video technologies for Ball Aerospace. “This milestone puts us on track to deliver the PAA flight units for integration into the Orion flight test vehicle that will be in production at Kennedy Space Center next year.”
The PAA serves as a primary data and voice communication link for NASA astronauts across all mission phases from launch through flight operations and final capsule recovery.
The EDUs are now undergoing testing at Lockheed Martin-Denver in preparation for subsystem Critical Design Review.
