Moog Joins Rocket City Space Pioneers GLXP Team
Dynetics PR – Huntsville, Ala. (May 19, 2011) – Dynetics and Moog will announce today at the International Space Development Conference that Moog has joined the Rocket City Space Pioneers as the newest team member.
Moog brings its heritage and proven flight hardware experience including the ESPA (Evolved Expendable Launch Secondary Payload Adapter). The ESPA was developed under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/VS) with support from the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program at Kirtland Air Force Base. Unused launch capacity, a growing interest in missions utilizing small satellites and a desire for affordable launch opportunities led to the development. Moog has been an industry partner for control solutions for almost 60 years, providing propulsion, actuation and electronic solutions for military, civil and commercial spaceflight.
The Rocket City Space Pioneers team is a group of space businesses and educational organizations led by Dynetics, competing in the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE.
Tim Pickens, team leader for the Rocket City Space Pioneers, said, “ We are excited to have another heritage hardware team on board that brings mature and affordable solutions to our launch architecture. The ESPA ring is the backbone of our payload delivery system.”
The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million competition that challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the Moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks. The Rocket City Space Pioneers team is comprised of 10 organizations and is among 29 teams from a dozen countries that are registered in the competition. The Rocket City Space Pioneers are competing against the other teams in a race to the surface of the Moon for a $20 million first prize.
In addition to Dynetics and now Moog, team members include Teledyne Brown Engineering, Andrews Space, Spaceflight Services, Draper Laboratory, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation and the Huntsville Center for Technology.
Doug Morash, Space Sector director for Moog, said, “Google X PRIZE is an outstanding opportunity for several great companies to work together and we are excited to join them. Moog brings a broad range of space knowledge and extensive hands-on experience to the project. Moog’s ESPA will enable the lander to bring additional payloads to the Moon. We are thrilled to be a part of the Rocket City Space Pioneer’s team and their race to the Moon.”
The Rocket City Space Pioneers are developing a low-cost lunar lander/rover system for conducting commercial and scientific missions on the Moon and potentially other planetary bodies. The lander/rover system is capable of making a soft landing on a planetary body and deploying a rover measuring approximately 20x30x40 centimeters and weighing approximately 10 kilograms.
About Moog Inc.
Moog is a worldwide designer, manufacturer and integrator of precision control components and systems, providing high performance mission critical solutions for launch vehicles, spacecraft, missiles, ground vehicles, naval vessels and security systems. For launch vehicles and spacecraft, Moog supplies solutions such as solar array deployment actuators, antenna positioning mechanisms, thrust vector control, platform electronics, and propulsion systems and components. Moog also specializes in payload isolation, ground-based test systems, tuned mass dampers for vibration control and jitter reduction control systems. Moog is working with Dynetics to deliver flight-proven hardware for the Google Lunar X PRIZE, including actuation systems and a secondary payload adapter called ESPA.
About Dynetics
Dynetics Inc., with headquarters in Huntsville, Ala., and offices throughout the United States, has delivered high-quality, high-value engineering, scientific and information technology solutions to customers within the U.S. government and a range of other market segments since 1974. The company’s mission is to deliver superior quality, high-technology products and services ethically, responsively and cost effectively to meet customer needs in the areas of intelligence, missiles, aviation, cyber and space. Visit www.dynetics.com for more details.
About the X PRIZE Foundation
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured world headlines when Burt Rutan, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world’s first private vehicle to space to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation is creating and conducting competitions in four prize groups: Exploration (Space and Oceans), Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, and Education & Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as the leader in fostering innovation through competition. For more information, please visit www.xprize.org.
