{"id":64235,"date":"2018-08-30T01:27:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T17:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-hires-ssl-to-research-satellite-manufacturing-in-space\/"},"modified":"2018-08-30T01:27:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T17:27:15","slug":"nasa-hires-ssl-to-research-satellite-manufacturing-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-hires-ssl-to-research-satellite-manufacturing-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Hires SSL to Research Satellite Manufacturing in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><strong>NASA<\/strong> has contracted <strong>SSL<\/strong> to&nbsp;perform a study exploring how commercial habitats in space, like the International Space Station (ISS), could be used to build satellites&nbsp;and \u201cunlock new capabilities and business paradigms\u201d to support a growing U.S. space economy. In a statement, SSL said that transferring spacecraft building processes to space, \u201celiminates the constraints of launch vehicle volumes and schedules and the need for spacecraft to withstand the harsh conditions of launch. It allows for more simple and capable system designs that can be fielded more rapidly and economically.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASA is curious to see how the ISS and other commercially deployed space stations could reinvent satellite manufacturing and make it more cost-effective and efficient for specific missions. The study contract represents another step in a steadily growing technological and business relationship between the U.S. space agency and the&nbsp;the Palo Alto-based <strong>Maxar Technologies<\/strong> satellite manufacturing subsidiary.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in August, SSL was selected to help build and test a flight system component designed by <strong>NASA\u2018s Jet Propulsion Laboratory<\/strong> for a future mission that will study the Psyche metallic asteroid.&nbsp;SSL\u2019s in-orbit servicing and assembly capabilities are also contributing to a variety of NASA studies and missions including the robotic conversion of rocket upper stages into commercial habitats and the Dragonfly on-orbit satellite assembly program, which was demonstrated in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s focus on commercial activity in space is undoubtedly accelerating innovation,\u201d said SSL Government Systems&nbsp;President Richard White. \u201cAt SSL, we work closely with NASA to explore concepts that implement next-generation business models to stimulate private demand for commercial human spaceflight. Bringing commercial and government innovation together will be a powerful driver of capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In mid-August, NASA named SSL as one of its six U.S. industry partners under a $44 million program that aims to develop 10 tipping point\u201d technologies that \u201csignificantly benefit the commercial space economy,\u201d as well as support lunar lander, deep space rocket engine, and other future NASA objectives.&nbsp;&nbsp;NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the primary mission of the partnership program would be&nbsp; to enable technologies that would help NASA meet its exploration goals. \u201cWhile these key technologies will support NASA\u2019s science and human exploration missions in the future, these awards are yet another example of NASA\u2019s commitment to our nation\u2019s growing commercial space industry today,\u201d Bridenstine said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to building satellites in space, SSL is also printing satellites on the ground. SSL produced a 3D-printed satellite,Telstar 19 Vantage, for satellite operator <strong>Telesat<\/strong>. The satellite was launched this past July and now provides communication services over Canada, South America, and the Caribbean.&nbsp;SSL has been integrating a variety of 3D printed structural components on its satellites for the past few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA has contracted SSL to&nbsp;perform a study exploring how commercial habitats in space, like the International Space Station (ISS), could be used to build satellites&nbsp;and \u201cunlock new capabilities and business paradigms\u201d to support a growing U.S. space economy. In a statement, SSL said that transferring spacecraft building processes to space, \u201celiminates the constraints of launch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}