With over ten years of experience providing comprehensive launch, mission management, and in-space transportation services, Spaceflight has launched nearly 400 satellites, ranging from CubeSats to a 700-kilogram satellite, across 40 missions. Rocket Lab Electron Launch Vehicle Featuring NASA Meatball. For example, aerospace engineers are leveraging 3D printing to develop countless options for radiation shields, creating spacecraft components that are precisely customized to withstand the harsh conditions in space. Northrop Grumman is constantly looking for ways to use advanced materials and advanced manufacturing techniques like 3D printing that will allow it to fly the latest and greatest hardware in space. However, the firm does design and manufacture spacecraft with proprietary technologies. The company combines artificial intelligence and machine learning with human intelligence to create space-based intelligence networks, providing information on events before they happen-no news on whether L2 Solutions is specifically using 3D printing for its undertakings. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, L2 Solutions provides turnkey services and spacecraft design and manufacturing services, enabling its clients to engineer, design, and operate spacecraft. Its 13,000 pound-force E2 engine parts are designed, machined, and printed in-house, including the turbopump, main propellant valves, thrust chamber assembly, and gas generator, which gives ABL complete control over the engine architecture and time to market.īlue Origin rocket engine hot fire testing. Counting down to the first launch of its RS1 rocket later in 2022, it has been leveraging additive manufacturing (AM) to structurally optimize select components. Based in El Segundo, California, ABL already occupies several in-house facilities with end-to-end manufacturing capabilities, including 3D printing. Rocket Startup ABL Space Systems was founded by former SpaceX employees determined to prove that reaching space can be simple, efficient, and routine. Here is a breakdown of the businesses chosen by NASA and their involvement with 3D printing: ABL Space Systems With so many companies playing in this space, there’s no shortage of hype surrounding the commercial space industry. Like Smith points out, several newcomers bring their technology to the fore. With this new tool in our toolbox, these tremendously flexible contracts will meet a wide variety of NASA science and technology needs, further enhancing the agency’s Launch Services Program’s reputation as Earth’s bridge to space.”Įven though SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Blue Origin are heralding the list, the agency didn’t just go for the usual suspects. “This speaks to our expertise in understanding the launch market as we crafted VADR to maximize our efforts in enabling a growing U.S launch industry. “We are incredibly excited to announce the awardees for VADR from a broad range of established and emerging launch providers and launch service aggregators and brokers,” said Bradley Smith, director of launch services at NASA Headquarters in Washington. These small satellites and Class D payloads tolerate relatively high risk and serve as an ideal platform for technical and architecture innovation, contributing to NASA’s science research and technology development. They aim to provide a broad range of Federal Aviation Administration-licensed commercial launch services capable of delivering payloads, ranging from CubeSats to Class D missions to a variety of orbits, like escape trajectories. The recently announced fixed-price indefinite-delivery contracts have a five-year ordering period. As part of a strategy to optimize weight in systems built for space while reducing manufacturing costs and lead times, most of the companies chosen by NASA are using additive manufacturing (AM) to produce parts, or even entire rockets (like Relativity Space). The list includes big-league space firms like Virgin Orbit and United Launch Alliance (ULA) as well as newer space technology innovators like Rocket Lab. NASA has selected 12 companies to provide commercial launch services for the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) missions, with contracts totaling $300 million.
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