Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, is supplying critical navigation components for NOAA’s GOES-R series of weather-monitoring satellites. The third satellite in the series, GOES-T, is scheduled to launch on March 1, 2022, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Redwire delivered six Coarse Sun Sensor (CSS) pyramids and a Fine Sun Sensor Assembly, consisting of a high accuracy Fine Sun Sensor Head and an electronics processing unit. These were provided under a 2015 contract with Lockheed Martin. The CSS pyramids contain unique baffles for specific field of view geometries, and will be used for solar array pointing, sun acquisition and spacecraft navigation. Like its predecessors, the GOES-T spacecraft contains a Sun Pointing Platform (SPP) that provides a stable reference to track the seasonal and daily movement of the sun relative to the spacecraft. The Fine Sun Sensor will be used to accurately point the SPP directly sunward.
“Redwire is proud to partner with Lockheed Martin, NASA and NOAA on this critical mission to broaden our understanding of weather and climate,” said Don Wesson, leader of Redwire’s Sensors business. “As a key mission partner, we are leveraging our flight-proven technology to enable missions that can provide critical information that will greatly improve our lives here on Earth.”
The GOES satellites help meteorologists observe and predict weather that affects public safety, including severe weather like thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes. GOES-T will provide data for the U.S. West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and the Pacific Ocean.
The CSS pyramids demonstrate a long record of engineering success. CSS technology has successfully performed in highly elliptical, geostationary and low and medium orbits about the Earth, on various interplanetary missions to the Moon and Mars and in deep space. CSS technology is currently providing critical navigation capability on NASA’s Lucy mission, the first mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. Redwire’s Fine Sun Sensor has flown on more than 100 spacecraft. The high accuracy pointing sensor has provided sun pointing capabilities for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI) and Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) programs.
Decades of flight heritage and continual breakthroughs in new space technology enable Redwire to deliver critical sensors and other components to government and commercial customers, improving capabilities in low-Earth orbit and beyond.
About Redwire
Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW) is a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, with valuable IP for solar power generation and in-space 3D printing and manufacturing. With decades of flight heritage combined with the agile and innovative culture of a commercial space platform, Redwire is uniquely positioned to assist its customers in solving the complex challenges of future space missions. For more information, please visit www.redwirespace.com.
