Saab Space Antennas to take another trip to the moon

Saab Space in Gothenburg, Sweden, has been selected by Northrop Grumman Space Technologies to supply Telemetry antennas to NASA´s LCROSS lunar mission.

“We supplied antennas to ESA´s first lunar mission, SMART-1. The same basic antenna design will now be reused for the LCROSS mission. Our portfolio of wide coverage and medium gain antennas is extensive and we see more and more often reuse opportunities to the benefit of all parties”, says Jan Zackrisson, responsible for wide coverage antenna products at Saab Space.

The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), will seek to establish evidence of water ice presence in a crater on the south pole of the moon. This will be done by plunging a 1,000 kg kinetic impactor (the Atlas/Centaur upper stage) into the moon’s surface and using a remaining orbiting spacecraft, the Shepherding Spacecraft, to study the expected 70 km high, 1,000 metric ton plume of dust. The orbiter will then generate a second plume on impact. Both events will in addition be studied by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), earth orbiting sensors, as well as telescopes on Earth.

LCROSS is planned to be launched on an Atlas Centaur rocket together with the LRO in October 2008.

The order at hand is for two flight model antennas to be delivered to Northrop Grumman Space Technologies in Redondo Beach by the end of 2007.
The antennas are Patch Excited Cup antennas working at S-band frequencies. The antennas provide downlink gain for telemetry signals for the LCROSS spacecraft. This is the first order for spacecraft hardware received by Saab Space from Northrop Grumman Space Technologies.

Saab Space has 30 years of experience from building wide-coverage antennas and antenna elements. To date more than 350 antennas for telemetry and telecommand and several thousand phased array antenna elements have been delivered to demanding customers worldwide.


For further information, please contact:
Lars Nordfeldt, Director of Communications & Public Affairs
Tel: +46 (0)31-735 4312, Cellular: +46 (0)736-68 03 12, Fax: +46 (0)31-735 45 00

http://www.saabgroup.com/en/AboutSaab/Organisation/SaabSpace/bu_portalpage.htm
www.saabgroup.com


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SMART-1 Patch Excited Cup Antenna, similar to
the ones now on order for LCROSS.

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LCROSS approaching the moon (NASA)

Saab Space is an international, independent supplier of space equipment. The company’s main products are computers, microwave electronics and antennas for spacecraft and adapters and separation systems for launchers. The company has its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, a division located in Linköping, Sweden, and subsidiaries in Austria (Austrian Aerospace) and the USA (Saab Space USA LLC). Saab Space has approximately 510 employees. The company is since September 2006 a 100% subsidiary of the Saab Group.

Saab serves the global market with world-leading products, services and solutions ranging from military defence to civil security. Saab has operations and employees on all continents and constantly develops, adopts and improves new technology to meet customers’ changing needs.

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