Space Systems/Loral Announces Milestone in NASA Ames Project, Praises Plans for Agency’s New Direction
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) today announced its support for NASA’s new direction in conjunction with the preliminary design review for the propulsion system that it is building for a spacecraft that will study the lunar atmosphere.
“Space Systems/Loral has a long history of working with government agencies to provide industry solutions that meet or exceed mission requirements,” said John Celli, president of Space Systems/Loral. “By leveraging the value of commercial space industry capabilities, the new plan for NASA will help the U.S. strengthen its leadership in space while at the same time stimulating job growth in the private sector.”
May 19 marked an important milestone in SS/L’s contract to provide a propulsion system to NASA Ames Research Center for the Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. The review confirmed that the preliminary design of the propulsion system meets all system requirements and it supported authorization to begin the final design phase of the project. The progress made demonstrates NASA’s success in leveraging the capability of commercially proven technology for U.S. Government missions.
In another recent project in support of NASA’s space exploration mission, SS/L provided a high-gain Ka-Band antenna that is now providing data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) that is studying how solar variations influence life on Earth. SDO was launched earlier this year and has started to provide dramatic images of the Sun containing crucial scientific data.
“SS/L is pleased to support NASA in its robotic exploration missions, which are an important part of the Obama administration’s new space policy,” said Arnold Friedman, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Space Systems/Loral. “We applaud the new direction set out for NASA and believe that there are significant benefits to leveraging commercial space industry resources so that NASA researchers can focus on the development of groundbreaking technologies that will enable deep space exploration and human spaceflight.”
About Space Systems/Loral
Space Systems/Loral, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications (Nasdaq:LORL), has a long history of delivering reliable satellites and spacecraft systems for commercial and government customers around the world. As the world’s leading provider of commercial satellites, the company works closely with satellite operators to provide spacecraft for a broad range of services including television and radio distribution, digital audio radio, broadband Internet, and mobile communications. Billions of people around the world depend on SS/L satellites every day. For more information, visit www.ssloral.com.
About Loral Space & Communications
Loral Space & Communications is a satellite communications company. Through its Space Systems/Loral subsidiary, the company is a world-class leader in the design and manufacture of satellites and satellite systems for commercial and government applications including direct-to-home television, broadband communications, wireless telephony, weather monitoring, and air traffic management. Loral also owns 64 percent of Telesat, one of the world’s largest providers of satellite services. Telesat operates a fleet of telecommunications satellites used to broadcast video entertainment programming, distribute direct-to-home video and broadband data services, and other value-added communications services. For more information, visit Loral’s Web site at www.loral.com. LORL-G
