Thu, Aug 30, 2018
Al Yah 3 GEOStar-3 Spacecraft Achieves Orbit With Electric Propulsion
Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman together recently achieved a significant milestone with the successful completion of electric propulsion orbit acquisition operations on the Al Yah 3 GEOStar-3 spacecraft. Aerojet Rocketdyne’s XR-5 Hall Thruster system operated for more than 600 hours (over 25 days of firing) to propel the spacecraft to the intended orbit, which aided recovery from a launch insertion anomaly.
“Mission success is always our priority at Aerojet Rocketdyne,” said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake. “Working with our customer Northrop Grumman to ensure their spacecraft reached its intended orbit with our XR-5 Hall Thruster system speaks to our core value of teamwork.”
This mission is the first Northrop Grumman GEOStar-3 spacecraft to fly the Aerojet Rocketdyne XR-5 Hall Thruster system, and the first time the system has been utilized in a commercial mission. Electric propulsion orbit acquisition operations of the XR-5 subsystem and all checkout operations of the spacecraft were recently concluded, and the spacecraft is now operational.
Each Aerojet Rocketdyne XR-5 subsystem aboard a GEOStar-3 spacecraft consists of four XR-5 Hall Thrusters and two power processing units to drive the thrusters. GEOStar-3 satellites are used to provide a variety of communications services, including direct-to-home TV broadcasting, broadband connectivity, cable program distribution, business data network capacity, regional mobile communications and similar services.
“The first commercial operation for the XR-5 is a significant milestone for Aerojet Rocketdyne,” added Drake. “Electric propulsion technology can greatly increase the revenue-generating potential of commercial satellites by replacing propellant mass with communication transponders.”
The Al Yah 3 mission is the fifth flight mission to utilize Aerojet Rocketdyne’s XR-5 Hall system. All four previous missions were commissioned by the U.S. Government. Multiple XR-5 commercial missions are already scheduled for 2018.
(Image provided with Aerojet Rocketdyne news release)
More News
Very High Frequency The frequency band between 30 and 300 MHz. Portions of this band, 108 to 118 MHz, are used for certain NAVAIDs; 118 to 136 MHz are used for civil air/ground voi>[...]
Aero Linx: Aviation Suppliers Association Established February 25, 1993, the Aviation Suppliers Association (ASA), based in Washington, D.C., is a not-for-profit association, repre>[...]
Have A Story That NEEDS To Be Featured On Aero-News? Here’s How To Submit A Story To Our Team Some of the greatest new stories ANN has ever covered have been submitted by our>[...]
From 2021 (YouTube Version): Colorado Campus Offers aVariety Of Aerospace Entertainment And Education Wings over the Rockies Exploration of Flight is the second location for the Wi>[...]
Also: Paramotor Champ's, Electric Ultralight, ICON BK Update, Burt Rutan at Oshkosh! The Popular Rotorcraft Association is reaching out for help in rebuilding their private runway >[...]