Will Establish Standardized Communications Between Station, Docking Vehicles

L-3 Communications has been awarded a $24 million contract to deliver communications units for NASA’s Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles (C2V2) program. The program provides standardized communications between the International Space Station (ISS) and docking vehicles by using a standard data link for exchanging audio, video and telemetry data at varying data rates and communications ranges. This will consolidate communications functions on the station, save weight and space, and simplify logistics for coordinating the docking of visiting vehicles.

“With a 50-year heritage in space communications, our highly skilled team has the experience and the talent to deliver this important capability,” said Steve Kantor, president of the L-3 Electronic Systems Group. “We are very excited that our hardware will support both government and commercial vehicles in docking with the space station.”

The contract includes design and delivery of four S-Band flight units, along with associated flight equivalent units, spares, ground support equipment and compatibility test sets. The C2V2 program has an expected mission life of 13 years.

Work will be performed at L-3 Cincinnati Electronics located in Mason, Ohio, which provides advanced spacecraft and launch vehicle systems and avionics, as well as infrared imaging systems and sensors for DoD, NASA, Department of Homeland Security and related commercial businesses. L-3’s previous work on the International Space Station includes design and delivery of the ISS Communication and Tracking System (C&TS), and design and delivery of Triple Data Encryption Standard Units (TDUs).

FMI: www.L-3com.com