Redwire Providing Critical Navigation Technology to Guide NASA’s First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids (Courtesy of Finance.Yahoo.com) — Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a leader in mission critical space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, is providing critical navigation components for NASA’s Lucy mission, the first spacecraft to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. The mission set to launch from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
Redwire delivered two Coarse Sun Sensor (CSS) Pyramids —a 2 axis sensor containing four detectors, used for solar array pointing, sun acquisition, and failsafe recovery—for the Lucy program through a contract with Lockheed Martin. Acceptance testing of the CSS Pyramids was completed in early July 2020 and shipment was made to Lockheed Martin later that month to support spacecraft integration and test.
“Redwire is proud to be working alongside our mission partners as a trusted supplier for NASA’s groundbreaking Lucy program,” said Don Wesson, leader of Redwire’s Sensors business. “Building on decades of flight heritage, our sensor technology will enable the advanced navigation capabilities needed to ensure Lucy meets its science and exploration objectives to reveal new details about our solar system.”
Lucy will visit eight different asteroids over 12 years following a complex path, making it the first mission launched to as many different destinations in independent orbits around our Sun. Giving us a first-time view of the primordial bodies that built the planets, Lucy will expand our understanding of the formation of the solar system.
Building on decades of flight heritage, Redwire’s sensors and components provide more flexibility and capability on-orbit with more processing power and smaller form factors. CSS technology has successfully performed in highly elliptical, geostationary, and low and medium Earth orbits about the Earth, and on various interplanetary missions to the Moon and Mars, and in deep space.