ATK Awards Solar Panel Manufacturing Contract to EMCORE

EMCORE has received a manufacturing contract from ATK for the supply of lightweight solar panels for use in the Ultraflex Solar Arrays of ATK. These panels will be used in the power cargo delivery spacecraft for the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) missions of Orbital Sciences. The CRS is part of the missions for the International Space Station (ISS).

According to the terms of the contract that Orbital has signed with NASA, it will be arranging for support services for cargo logistics. The solar panels will be assembled into solar arrays from ATK that are ready for deployment. The cargo support services will commence in 2012. These solar panel arrays will be delivered to Orbital Sciences for installation into the Cygnus space vehicles.

The General Manager of ATK commented that by combining the efficiency and reliability of the photovoltaic panels from EMCORE with the light weight Ultraflex arrays from ATK, the Cygnus spacecraft will be supplied with a long-term solution that takes care of the transport of goods to the ISS. EMCORE has been manufacturing efficient, radiation-resistant hard solar cells that are suited for space power applications. The beginning-of-life (BOL) conversion efficiency of these multi-junction solar panels is nearly 30% and they are equipped with an option of accommodating a monolithic bypass diode on board. The solar panels from EMCORE are known to provide the highest power for interplanetary space crafts and satellites that orbit the earth.