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Magellan Aerospace awarded contract for RADARSAT Constellation Mission bus development
TORONTO, May 27 /CNW/ - Magellan Aerospace Corporation announced today the award to its Winnipeg-...
About this update from Magellan Aerospace Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTORONTO, May 27 /CNW/ - Magellan Aerospace Corporation announced today\nthe award to its Winnipeg-based division, Bristol Aerospace, of the RADARSAT\nConstellation Mission (RCM) satellite bus development contract with MacDonald,\nDettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) of Vancouver.\n\n\nThe RCM mission is being developed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to\nprovide C-Band data continuity to existing RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2 users. As\nwell, the RCM mission will support maritime surveillance (ship detection, ice\nmonitoring and oil spill detection), disaster management and ecosystem\nmonitoring. The primary areas of coverage are Canada and its surrounding\nArctic, Pacific and Atlantic maritime areas. The mission will be comprised of\nthree spacecraft in low earth orbit, each carrying a C-band Synthetic Aperture\nRadar (SAR) payload. The expected launch dates are 2014, 2015 and 2016.\n\n\nThe initial contract, valued at $6M Cdn, will have a period of\nperformance through the end of 2009, and is for the Phase B Preliminary Design\nof the satellite bus, or platform, which is the service module section of the\nsatellite. Further contracts are expected to follow for the Detailed Design\nand Manufacture, Integration and Test phases of the program, upon Government\napproval for full program funding. The RCM bus development and manufacture\nwill be conducted at Magellan's facilities in Winnipeg, Manitoba.\n\n\nThe RCM bus will be based on the MAC-200 small satellite bus that was\nfirst developed for the CSA's CASSIOPE program. The MAC-200 bus was delivered\nto the customer in March 2008 and is now undergoing spacecraft-level testing\nat the CSA's David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa, with an expected launch date\nin 2010. The MAC-200 bus will be upgraded to accommodate the large, deployable\nC-band SAR antenna and to increase the power subsystem capacity for the radar\npayload. New GPS and propulsion subsystems will be added to support the\nprecision orbit maintenance requirements. Upgrades will be made to the bus\navionics to support the seven-year mission lifetime. These latest developments\nof the MAC-200 bus follow on the success of Magellan's SCISAT-1, the first\nsmall satellite developed in Canada in over 40 years. SCISAT-1 continues to\nperform flawlessly in orbit after over 5 1/2 years, providing scientists with\ncritical d...