NATICK, Mass. (Busek Co. PR) — The in-space propulsion firm Busek Co. confirmed its supply of BHT-350 Hall effect thrusters for a range of missions supported by Airbus OneWeb Satellites (AOS). The Busek thrusters have been engineered and qualified to rigorous standards and are suitable for high-reliability, long-lifetime applications where thrusters are used for orbit raising, maintenance, and end-of-life de-orbit.
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NASA has released a document listing the 1,206 active Space Act Agreements (SAAs) the agency has with commercial companies, non-profit organizations and state and local governments.
From that list, I’ve extracted agreements with individual companies. Below you will find tables listing SAAs that NASA has signed with Virgin Group companies, Moon Express and NanoRacks. There is also a fourth table that has SAAs with a number of companies and organizations that we follow on Parabolic Arc.
SAAs come in three varieties: reimburseable, non-reimburseable and funded. Under reimburseable agreements, a company or organization will pay NASA for its services. No money exchanges hands under non-reimburseable agrements. And under funded agreements, NASA pays the company to perform work or provide services. (The space agency made substantial use of SAA’s in the Commercial Crew Program.)
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3 thruster and neutralizer firing on xenon (top) and iodine (bottom). (Credit: Busek Co.)
NATICK, MA, JULY 31, 2017 (Busek PR) – Space propulsion firm Busek Co. Inc. confirms its ‘BIT-3’ ion thruster system completed two separate Critical D esign Reviews (CDR) for upcoming CubeSat space flight programs. CDRs are major milestones prior to manufacturing flight hardware, the initial set of BIT-3 flight systems being scheduled for delivery Q1 2018. The iodine fueled solar electric propulsion systems are the first of their kind which enable an entirely new range of small spacecraft missions.
SSL concept for solar electric propulsion spacecraft (Credit: SSL)
PALO ALTO, CA, Feb. 10, 2016 (SSL PR) – Space Systems Loral (SSL), a leading provider of commercial satellites, today announced that it is collaborating with a U.S. technology innovator, Busek Co, Inc. to advance the current capability of solar electric propulsion systems. SSL and Busek plan to build on the current collaboration specifically to address the future needs of NASA and other U.S. government agencies.
100µN electrospray thruster system. (Credit: Busek Co.)
NATICK, MA (Busek PR) — Satellite propulsion firm Busek Co. Inc. confirms the shipment of its first miniature electrospray small satellite thrusters to NASA.
The modular, 100 micronewton-class thrusters enable new, highly efficient CubeSat maneuvers as well as fine position control for larger spacecraft.
The units were designed and manufactured by Busek for NASA’s Game Changing Development Program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is responsible for developing the crosscutting, pioneering, new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions.
