ORION ANTENNAS
We are proud to be on NASA’s first TM GO BEYOND WITH BALL. interplanetary spacecraft designed to carry astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit on long-duration, deep space missions and eventually to Mars. Our long-time success providing technology products for human spaceflight include the Gemini and Apollo missions, Skylab, the Space Shuttle and now Orion. OVERVIEW
Orion is NASA’s first interplanetary spacecraft designed to carry astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit on long-duration, deep space missions and eventually to Mars. Ball provided an avionics package for the 2014 unmanned Orion Exploration Flight Test that included cameras and antennas representative of Ball’s work as a long-time supplier of technology products for the human spaceflight program including the Gemini and Apollo missions, Skylab, the Space Shuttle and now Orion. Orion is NASA’s next generation system for human-rated spaceflight. The Orion Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) launched aboard a United Launch Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 5, 2014. The Orion spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin soared 3,600 miles above the Earth making two orbits during its four-and-half hour flight before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego. NASA has big plans for Orion including going to an asteroid, Mars and other destinations in deep space. The first manned flight of NASA’s Orion is currently scheduled no later than 2023. OUR ROLE
Ball was selected by prime contractor Lockheed Martin to provide Orion’s flight test cameras, phased array antennas, docking cameras, a visual navigation sensor and star trackers. Ball’s Orion test cameras are based on the design of the docking camera that flew aboard the STS-134 Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation – STORRM mission in 2011. The new, ultra-wide-field cameras for Orion EFT-1 featured enhanced software and exposure controls, and were positioned in different windows on the spacecraft in order to monitor the test flight as various procedures were carried out. The phased array antennas Ball provides for Orion are highly sophisticated subassemblies containing over 5,000 individual parts encased in a briefcase-sized housing. The antennas carry mission-critical voice and data communications and perform on the launch pad, during ascent, on orbit, and through de-orbit and splashdown. The Orion antennas are the primary means of voice, data and video communications for the astronaut crews who will pilot the nation’s next generation spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit on long- duration, deep-space missions. The Orion phased array antenna design leverages dozens of Ball phased array designs delivered for space, airborne, ground and marine applications.
Ball Aerospace 303-939-6100 • Fax: 303-939-6104 • [email protected] • www.ball.com/aerospace Copyright 04/2016, Ball Aerospace D3214