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Tag: ESA

Pratt & Whitney expands site at Eagle Services Asia facility in Singapore

Singapore, February 19, 2024, PRNewswire – (Singapore Airshow) Pratt & Whitney, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business, today announced the official opening of a 48,000 square-foot expansion of its Singapore based engine center, Eagle Services Asia (ESA). The facility will grow its GTF capacity by two-thirds this year.

The transformative technology insertion applied across both ESA sites integrates robotics, automation and machine learning to increase efficiency, lower stress on machine operators and increase safety for key MRO processes.

These innovations include fully automated high-pressure compressor (HPC) rotor stacking, a Receive-in-Check Cobot that augments the work done by human inspectors and a robotic arm to install and remove HPC bearing sleeves.

ESA, a joint venture between SIA Engineering Company and Pratt & Whitney, is a member of the Pratt & Whitney GTF™ MRO network. Since introducing GTF MRO capability in 2019, the facility has already completed over 500 GTF engine overhauls.

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Thaicom contracts Airbus for a OneSat flexible telecommunications satellite

Toulouse, France, September 11, 2023 – Thaicom PCL (THCOM), a leading Asian satellite operator and space technology company, has selected Airbus Group SE (AIR) for its new generation software-defined high throughput satellite.

Airbus will provide one of its latest designed satellites – a fully reconfigurable OneSat. This Thaicom satellite will provide extended connectivity in Ku-band over the Asia-Pacific region for millions of users. Thaicom has launched and operated eight geostationary satellites. This is Thaicom’s first flexible satellite, allowing for more adaptability on coverage, frequency and capacity which is crucial in such a dynamic region.

Positioned in orbit at 119.5° East, this state-of-the art satellite will enable Thaicom to propose to other partner operators a share of its satellite’s payload capacity, lowering their costs and still ensuring they have separate control of their individual payload capacity and flexibility.

Airbus will design and manufacture the satellite, and also provide ground control segment components. Airbus plans to deliver the satellite in 2027.

Airbus OneSat can be fully reconfigured in orbit, capable of adjusting the coverage area, capacity and frequency “on the fly” to meet evolving mission scenarios. It builds on the heritage of Airbus’ ultra-reliable Eurostar geostationary telecommunication satellites and the company’s constellation expertise with OneWeb. Development of the OneSat programme is supported by ESA, as well as the French Space Agency (CNES), and the UK Space Agency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voyager Space and Airbus Announce Joint Venture to Build and Operate Starlab

DENVER – 02 August, 2023 – Voyager Space, a global leader in space exploration, and Airbus (OTC: EADSY) Defence and Space, the largest aeronautics and space company in Europe, today announced an agreement paving the way for a transatlantic joint venture to develop, build, and operate Starlab, a commercial space station planned to succeed the International Space Station. The US-led joint venture will bring together world-class leaders in the space domain, while further uniting American and European interests in space exploration.

Voyager was awarded a $160 million Space Act Agreement (SAA) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in December 2021 via Nanoracks, part of Voyager’s exploration segment. Part of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program, this SAA sets the foundation to create Starlab, a continuously crewed, free-flying space station to serve NASA and a global customer base of space agencies and researchers.

The program’s mission is to maintain continued human presence and American leadership in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Today’s announcement builds on an agreement made public in January 2023, where Voyager selected Airbus to provide technical design support and expertise for Starlab.

In addition to the US entity, Starlab will have a European joint venture subsidiary to directly serve the European Space Agency (ESA) and its member state space agencies.

Airbus Built European Robotic Arm Ready for Space

Airbus (OTC: EADSY) space engineers have installed ESA’s European Robotic Arm (ERA) onto the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) and it is now ready for its flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Together with this module, known as ‘Nauka’, ERA and its two control stations will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on a Proton rocket.

After a one-week journey the European Robotic Arm will arrive at the ISS, where it will service the Russian segment of the space station. With a total length of 11.3 metres, the symmetrical, two-handed intelligent robot arm can ‘walk’ around the exterior of the ISS, hand-over-hand from one fixed base-point to another. ERA’s seven robust and accurate joints, the lightweight limbs and the control computer in the middle of the arm give the robot arm its versatility.

Astronauts and cosmonauts can control the European Robotic Arm in real-time or pre-programme it from inside or outside of the ISS, to make it move payloads, inspect the space station with its infrared cameras and to support operations outside the ISS. From its tip, the robot provides electrical power, a data bus, a video line and a rotating drive machine. By connecting a tool to the tip, ERA can be equipped for one of the many tasks it can perform automatically or semi-automatically. ERA has a lightweight construction but thanks to the zero-gravity conditions in space, it can move very large masses: from 3,000 kg routinely up to 8,000 kg in slow modus. The robot arm operates with an accuracy of 5 millimetres.

ERA has been developed for European Space Agency (ESA) by a European consortium, led by Airbus Defence and Space in the Netherlands. Airbus designed the arm and its software functions, managed the development of subsystems throughout Europe and integrated and tested the system. In the last few months Airbus has integrated ERA on the MLM, together with ESA and Russian partners RSC/Energia.

Leading the Way for the Future of EGNOS

Airbus-led consortiums have recently won a series of contracts to shape the future of EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. EGNOS enhances Galileo and GPS signals to provide augmented safety of life services.

EGNOS V3, set to replace the current version, is already being developed by a consortium of 20 European companies led by Airbus. It will enable ‘Category I’ automatic landing of aircraft – with the flight crew supervising – in weather conditions where it would otherwise be dangerous or impossible to operate. 

To prepare EGNOS V3 Evolutions, the European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a new study contract to Airbus.  The focus is on the use of the augmentation service for stringent operations like Category II approach and landing under very low visibility conditions going beyond the current EGNOS V3 performance requirements.

Preceding this, Airbus has been conducting an innovative study under the ESA NAVISP Programme to assess the potential of sensor fusion techniques, for aviation applications demanding stringent performance requirements aiding operations under low visibility conditions. The study assesses the fit and the benefits of this approach to the Positioning Navigation & Timing (PNT) requirement adherence, in particular for the Satellite Navigation.

In addition, Airbus, together with European partners, has won a series of contracts from the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA) and ESA to extend EGNOS service use for the safe operations of railways. The resulting projects are:

– CLUG (Certifiable Localisation Unit with GNSS): GNSS could prove a game changer for the European railway network by enabling a significant reduction of trackside equipment and by improving localisation performance. This project is performing mission analysis/needs identification and a preliminary feasibility study of an on-board localisation unit.

– GREET (GNSS for the Railway EnvironmEnT) ESA recently awarded Airbus a study for the development of a railway GNSS receiver chain to support the testing and validation of integrity concepts, algorithms, and techniques for receivers in railway environment.

– EGNSS-R (European GNSS for Rail): Rail signaling systems are used to safely control traffic in order to prevent train collisions.  The project aims to define a new GNSS augmentation service for improved rail signaling, along with an implementation roadmap.