Comtech AeroAstro, Inc. (CAA), a manufacturer of satellites and satellite components, announces a partnership with SSBV Space and Ground Systems (SSBV SGS) to promote and ultimately manufacture CAA’s modular S-Band Transceivers.
CAA and SSBV SGS are working with the U.S. State Department on a Manufacturing License Agreement (MLA) that allows SSBV to promote the CAA S-Band product into worldwide markets. The long term goal is for SSBV SGS to manufacture, integrate and test the S-Band Transceiver locally in the United Kingdom to allow adoption by European institutional programs.
“This is an exciting next step into the international space market for CAA,” said Mr. Stanley O. Kennedy, Jr. CAA’s VP & GM, Commercial, Civil & International Programs, “the partnership between CAA and SSBV SGS will help us promote our products more effectively overseas — and establishes SSBV SGS with a U.S. partner for future opportunities in the U.S. space market.” Mr. Kennedy went on to state, “CAA brings the design for a flight proven S-Band Transceiver, while SSBV SGS has state of the art facilities for manufacturing and testing Flight quality products. The synergy between the two company’s capabilities is such that our customers, both domestically and internationally, will have access to the latest technologies at best-value pricing.”
Mr. James Barrington-Brown of SSBV SGS stated, “The cooperation with CAA allows SGS and the SSBV Aerospace & Technology Group to further expand its activities in the provision of flight proven units and subsystems within the international space markets. This is an exciting opportunity that further builds on the SSBV Group’s philosophy of expansion thorough partnership.”
CAA’s S-Band Transceiver can be configured for STDN, SGLS, or USB protocols and are designed to provide affordable and reliable telemetry and command uplink/downlink for a wide variety of satellite bus systems. The transmitter, receiver and High-Power Amplifier (HPA) are in separate modules providing multiple placement configurations. Each module weighs less than 200g. CAA built three SGLS transceivers in support of the NeosSat mission for the Canadian Space Agency and Microsat Systems Canada, Inc. (MSCI). And, recently delivered a STDN Engineering Development Unit to a Major U.S. Prime System Integrator.
SSBV SGS offers a wide range of Flight sub-systems for small sats and RF product test services based on in-house designs supported by a sophisticated software architecture. This allows automated rapid testing of complex RF systems offering large reduction in test costs. All Flight unit manufacturing is undertaken in clean-room conditions following ESA/NASA standards. All units are then extensively tested in fully equipped test facilities. As the CAA S-Band Transceiver is an existing flight design, and incorporates MIL parts with known in orbit performance, mission risks are significantly reduced.