Military/Aerospace Electronics

Airbus and Iceye are among the first five commercial operators of radar satellites to be chosen to supply their data to the U.S. government. The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has announced the award of five contracts with Airbus (U.S.), Capella Space, Iceye (U.S.), PredaSAR and Umbra. Basically, the aim is to ensure the U.S. government has access to the ...

Microchip is offering a 28Vin space-grade dc-dc converter built from discrete components. Why discrete components and not hybrid construction? “They are easier to customize than alternative space-grade power converters so they can meet specific voltage, current and other needs,” said Microchip v-p of discrete products Leon Gross. Custom versions are available “with reasonable lead time and modest NRE cost,” said ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) and European Union (EU) will be holding a Space Summit in February to identify how best to boost Europe’s space ambitions. It will consider how best space-related technology can address environmental, economic and security challenges, says the ESA. Specifically, EU strategies for secure connectivity and for space traffic management. Taking place on 16 February in ...

OneWeb, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite comms company partly owned by the UK government, is signing southern hemisphere broadband distribution deals. It is now more than half-way to completing its planned constellation. India In India, for example, OneWeb has announced a six-year Distribution Partner agreement to provide LEO connectivity services across the Sub-Continent. The arrangement is between OneWeb and ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) is about to open its call for 2022 Young Graduate Trainee (YGT) opportunities. Established in 1983, the YGT Programme lasts for one year (with possible extension to a second year) and gives an opportunity to work on European space missions. Basically, every year in February, the ESA publishes around 100 YGT opportunities in science and ...

The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover system has passed its latest tests, ahead of its planned September launch in Kazakhstan, the UK Space Agency has highlighted. The technology – the rover is currently in an ultra-clean room at the Thales Alenia Space premises in Turin, along with its Mars-bound companion, the Kazachok landing platform – has completed a series of successful ...

Silicon Designs has launched a family of miniature, radiation-tested, tactical-grade MEMS inertial accelerometers. Offered in three standard full-scale acceleration ranges, of ±10 g, ±25 g, and ±50 g, respectively, the Model 1527 Series is expressly designed to support a variety of critical space electronics testing requirements, including those of spacecraft, satellites, and CubeSats. In addition, their small bias and scale ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) is highlighting that astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) are connecting straight to Europe at light speed, via the European Data Relay System dubbed ColKa. An upgrade to the comms system is now delivering broadband internet at speeds equivalent to those on Earth, says ESA. The satellite in question picks up signals from ...

The European Space Agency has qualified the RTEMS open-source real-time operating system for safety-critical multi-processing in satellites. Railway, medical and automotive sectors could benefit. “ESA certified RTEMS in the symmetric multiprocessing configuration for Criticality Category C and D,” said German RTEMS support company Embedded Brains. “This means that safety-critical functions can now also be executed on modern multicore processors that ...

Virgin Orbit successfully completed its third mission at the end of last week, launching several satellites into orbit from beneath the wing of a modified Boeing 747 in California. The significance for the UK, beyond the good news for Glasgow-based Spire Global which had one of the seven satellites in the payload (its ADLER-1), is that it potentially brings a UK ...