Author Topic: Orbital ATK Signs Contract with LM to Produce Satellite Propellant Tanks  (Read 2265 times)

Offline jacqmans

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Orbital ATK Signs Contract with Lockheed Martin to Produce Satellite Propellant and Pressurant Tanks


Company’s Spacecraft Components Division to Continue Manufacturing Tanks for Lockheed Martin A2100 Satellites

Contract Builds Upon a 20-year Supply Relationship Between the Two Companies

Dulles, Virginia 24 August 2015 – Orbital ATK, Inc. (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, today announced that it recently signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to produce  propellant and pressurant tanks for Lockheed Martin’s updated A2100 satellite platform. The five-year contract continues a 20-year relationship between Orbital ATK and Lockheed Martin for satellite fuel tanks produced by the company’s Space Systems Group in Commerce, California.

“We have been a valued and trusted supplier to Lockheed Martin for over two decades, delivering more than 75 flight sets of tanks for the A2100 satellite program,” said Dave Shanahan, Vice President and General Manager of Orbital ATK’s Space Components Division. “Since the mid-1990s, we have become the ‘go-to supplier’ for these tanks. This latest contract represents the continued vote of confidence from a valued customer in our engineering and analysis strength and our facility that provides end-to-end manufacturing capabilities for tanks. We look forward to continuing this successful relationship for many years to come.”

“This contract and technology are important elements of our modernized A2100 satellite,” said Mike Cacheiro, Vice President of Global Supply Chain, Lockheed Martin. “By signing long-term agreements like this, we’re able to offer our customers competitive prices coupled with superior technology to meet a host of missions.” 

Lockheed Martin’s A2100 satellite constellation offers global telecommunications applications for government, commercial and civil customers. Since the mid-1990s, Orbital ATK has supplied all but two of the flight sets for the A2100. The company was the innovator for the hybrid composite, reinforced propellant tanks and continues to be the industry leader in this technology.

Under this new contract, which extends through March 2020, Orbital ATK will produce all of the modernized A2100 flight sets for the next five years. A flight set includes:

•    A hybrid composite pair of liquid propellant tanks
•    A pair of high-pressure/high-performance, titanium-lined pressurant tanks
•    As required, a pair of titanium-lined ion propulsion xenon tanks

The liquid propellant tanks contain a high-performance Propellant Management Device (PMD) designed and analyzed by PMD Technologies, the foremost designer of low-gravity fluid dynamics acquisition devices. The PMD controls the fluid during all operational scenarios providing gas-free propellant to the satellite’s thrusters. The all-titanium PMDs assure long-term propellant compatibility throughout mission life. Orbital ATK has delivered more than 1,400 PMD tank assemblies to date.

Orbital ATK’s Space Components Division is the world’s leading producer of titanium propellant tanks used in military, scientific and commercial satellites, space-launch vehicles and space-exploration vehicles, with more than 600 designs qualified and more than 6,100 tanks delivered. The tanks have been a part of nearly every large U.S. launch vehicle and most of the satellites flying today, with 100 percent reliability.

« Last Edit: 08/25/2015 06:31 am by jacqmans »
Jacques :-)

Offline Ronsmytheiii

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Well, so much for 3D printing it

http://m.aviationweek.com/awin-only/lockheed-martin-testing-3-d-printed-subsystems-a2100-space-bus

Quote
Lockheed Martin Testing 3-D-Printed Subsystems On A2100 Space Bus

FARNBOROUGH — Within the next three years, Lockheed Martin Space Systems expects more than half of its A2100 satellite bus to be built through additive manufacturing, the revolutionary fabrication process that promises drastically reduced hardware development costs and production cycle times.
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"But my goal is to have over 50% of the structures 3-D-printed within two to three years," Ambrose said in an interview on the sidelines of the Farnborough air show here.
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Ambrose says some brackets can take up to 30 hr. to machine by hand, while additive manufacturing can produce 300 of the same parts in a single day that are just as structurally sound.
>

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33141.msg1238191

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