Mary-Louise Hoffman
A Raytheon Technologies subsidiary continues to provide support to the Air Force Research Laboratory’s on-orbit evaluation of a small satellite that was launched in December 2021.
AFRL deployed the Blue Canyon Technologies-built Ascent spacecraft to test in geostationary orbit the performance of commercial satellite systems, including a cold gas propulsion system from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the smallsat maker said Thursday.
The 12-unit CubeSat is part of the Space Test Program-3 mission, which the U.S. Space Force and its mission partners launched Dec. 7 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
John Carvo, executive director of BCT’s CubeSats business unit, said Ascent is the manufacturer’s first deployment of a satellite and demonstration of solar array drive assemblies in the GEO environment.
“This is yet another example of our vertical integration and collaborative partnerships with our customers that enable BCT to expand the frontiers of science and defense,” Carvo added.
