Sat, Apr 04, 2009
Now Provides Star Trackers For Shuttle Program
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has been selected by The
Boeing Company as the contractor for the Ares I Instrument Unit
Assembly (IUA) Flight Computer (FC) and Command Telemetry Computer
(CTC).
Ball Aerospace will employ its Common Computing Architecture for
the IUA to build three flight computers that operate synchronously,
and two command telemetry computers per Ares I flight. The
synchronous operation of the flight computers provides the fault
tolerance necessary to ensure astronaut safety. The computers are
the "brains" of the rocket, and will control and monitor the flight
of the Ares I rocket following liftoff and until separation of the
second stage.
"Ball Aerospace has supported NASA's human space flight
activities since Gemini, through Apollo, Skylab, and the Space
Shuttle," said David L. Taylor, Ball Aerospace president and CEO.
"We are proud to continue that legacy by providing hardware for
Ares I, supporting Boeing in enabling NASA's next generation of
more capable Exploration vehicles."
The company says its computers for the IUA will apply Ball's
system engineering expertise to deliver a safe, fault-tolerant
product at a price that supports the low life cycle costs that
enable the Ares I program. Ball Aerospace is the sole source for
human-rated star trackers for the space shuttle program, and Ball's
mechanical components, cryogenics and optical systems fly aboard
every space shuttle mission.
Ares I is the crew launch vehicle being developed by NASA to
launch Orion, the next spacecraft designed for human spaceflight
missions following retirement of the space shuttle program in
2010.
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