Millennium Space Systems adds a new flight-proven ALTAIR spacecraft to its roster

Millennium Space Systems, based in El Segundo, CA, announced on June 19 the successful deployment and operation of its first of many planned ALTAIR Pathfinder spacecraft on orbit. The ALTAIR Pathfinder was designed to demonstrate the latest innovations in avionics, guidance & control, additive manufacturing, power systems, RF communications and onboard processing technologies.

Thanks to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Houston-based NanoRacks LLC, the ALTAIR Pathfinder was deployed on-orbit from the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) commercial launch service on May 17, 2017, and has been operating nominally. The deployment opportunity was made available by NanoRacks via its Space Act Agreement with NASA’s U.S. National Lab. The ALTAIR Pathfinder has achieved early on-orbit mission objectives in a three-week span. In the fall of 2016 Millennium Space Systems expanded its state-of-the-art factory to support high-volume manufacturing of the ALTAIR Pathfinder.

“The ALTAIR Pathfinder technology demonstrator mission objective achievements to date are proof to our National Security Space and NASA customers that Millennium Space Systems is capable of achieving on-orbit success at very affordable price points on extremely fast schedules regardless of the many obstacles on a flight program,” said Griffith Russell, Millennium Space Systems’ ALTAIR Pathfinder mission director. “Additionally, through specialized space-to-ground-segment operational guidelines, our crew has forged a highly-integrated relationship with NASA JSC, NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center, NanoRacks and Swedish Space Corporation during this foundational early on-orbit check-out period, which significantly lowers risk for our multiple follow-on ALTAIR spacecraft on-orbit deliveries in 2018.”

ALTAIR Pathfinder follows the success of Millennium Space Systems’ high-reliability, high-performance AQUILA spacecraft platform line. The ALTAIR platform targets the growing demand for larger, affordable constellations in support of more resilient, technologically advanced and persistent architectures for National Security Space and NASA missions.

Source: Millennium Space Systems