....for the U.S. environmental observation mission Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1), slated for launch in 2016. JPSS is being procured by NASA on behalf of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). This is the first time this high-performance product will fly on a NASA-developed satellite. The contract was signed between Astrium and the JPSS spacecraft contractor, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, CO, USA.
Astrium’s Astrix® family of Fiber Optic Gyros supply very-high accuracy rotation rate data with extremely low noise, crucial for space systems stabilization, pointing, and attitude control. Developed in cooperation with iXSea, the state-of-the-art Astrix® products provide the highest performances on the market. Together with high-reliability, more than 15 years of continuous operation, low power consumption, low mass, quick start and versatile interfaces, they are ideally suited to any space application. The Astrix® products have already cumulated significant flight heritage on board Planck, Galileo validation satellites, Pleiades, and other export missions. The Joint Polar Satellite System is the latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous environmental satellites. JPSS will provide global environmental data for digital weather forecast models, and scientific data for climate monitoring. Two further satellites are planned for the JPSS program.