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America’s First Space Flight
Westinghouse embarked on developing and producing the first space radar. The NASA Gemini program’s purpose was to refine techniques that would be needed to reunite the Lunar Lander with the Apollo Spacecraft after the lunar landing. To this end, Westinghouse embarked on developing and producing the first space radar. The engineering manager and principal “salesman” for this L-band radar program was Ben Vester. Bill Quigley was the technical director, and was responsible for the radar design. -
First satellite to be used for radio astronomy launched
The S-52, later called Ariel II, was built by Westinghouse. The prototype was 23 inches in diameter, 35 inches long and weighed 150 pounds. The purpose of the mission was to measure the atmospheric ozone layer; to measure the intensity of galactic radio noise, which interfered with radio astronomy; and to measure the number and size of micrometeroids encountered so scientists could predict the erosive effects of solar particles. -
Gemini VIII
The Gemini rendezvous radar enabled the two-man Gemini capsule to successfully maneuver to another space vehicle. The Gemini rendezvous was between an unmanned Agena target vehicle and the manned spacecraft. Not only did the program achieve its intended goals toward a successful Apollo mission, but the Gemini radar program was also a pioneer in forthcoming digital techniques. -
AIMP (Explorer 35) Satellite Launched
This Westinghouse-built satellite was launched into orbit around the moon, the first vehicle to attain this distinction. It provided magnetometer data on the moon in preparation for the Lunar Apollo landing. After successful operation for 6 years, the spacecraft was turned off on June 24, 1973. -
Man’s first steps on the moon
A team led by Lunar Camera program manager Stan Lebar developed the technology to capture images, broadcast across a quarter-million miles of space, and display them clearly to television viewers. The achievement was honored with an Emmy Award, for Outstanding Achievement in Coverage of a Special Event. From NASA Website-1968 Westinghouse Engineer -
First Defense Meterological Satellite Program (DMSP) Launched
Northrop Grumman has been the payload sensor provider for DMSP since 1966. The company's first DMSP payload was launched in 1970, and the program's coverage of the Earth's weather has been reliable, continuous and unbroken ever since. -
First Defense Support Support (DSP) Satellite Launched
DSP satellites use an infrared sensor to detect heat from missile and booster plumes against the earth's background. Our Azusa facility (originally AeroJet) has supplied missile-detecting infrared sensor payloads for all 23 DSP satellites. -
Seasat Launched
Seasat was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans and had onboard the first spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) which was designed by Westinghouse. -
Space Shuttle Columbia STS-2
Launched Nov. 12, 1981, the Shuttle Imaging Radar-A (SIRS-A) flew as an idea and an assemblage of spare parts from the 1978 Seasat Synthetic Aperture Radar. The radar onboard the shuttle was comprised of a single-frequency, single-polarization antenna capable of acquiring imagery at only one angle. Yet, the results were proof that certain radar frequencies could actually take images from as deep as 3 meters (9 feet) below the sand. -
Space Shuttle Challenger STS 41-G
The Shuttle Imaging Radar-B mission launched Oct. 5, 1984, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger for an eight-day mission. The radar imagery collected at the fixed look angle SEASAT and SIR-A experiments demonstrated the relationship between image intensity and the incidence angle of the radar at the surface. This led to the design of SIR-B, the first spaceborne SAR with a mechanically tiltable antenna. This allowed the acquisition of multi-incidence angle imagery. -
NOAA 15 Satellite Launched
The Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A), a 15-channel microwave sounder designed primarily to obtain temperature profiles in the upper atmosphere (especially the stratosphere) and to provide a cloud-filtering capability for tropospheric temperature observations. The first AMSU was launched in May 1998 on board the NOAA 15 satellite. The EOS AMSU-A is part of a closely coupled triplet of instruments that include the AIRS and HSB. -
Northrop Grumman Acquires Aerojet General Corporation's Electronics and Information Systems Group
Manufacturer of spaceborne sensors for early warning systems, weather systems, and ground systems; builder of smart weapons technology for U.S. defense programs -
Aqua Launched
The Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSU-A) are used to calculate global atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles from Earth’s surface to the upper stratosphere. -
Mars Exploration Rovers
The LN-200S played a significant role on the Mars Rover mission as an essential element in the critical entry, descent and landing phase. -
NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft successfully enters orbit around Saturn
Northrop Grumman’s space inertial reference unit (SIRU™ ) operated continuously since the 1997 launch. The SIRU™ was a key element in the spacecraft and provided critical information to its attitude control system, which was important to the insertion of the spacecraft into orbit around Saturn. It also was important for the pointing of Cassini's instruments throughout the mission. -
Deep Impact
Northrop Grumman’s SIRUs supplied the precise spacecraft-orientation information critical to the success of NASA's Deep Impact mission, a seven-month journey to comet Tempel 1 and the first space mission to probe beneath the surface of a comet and reveal the secrets of its interior. -
DMSP F-17 Launched
The satellite's payload included two sensors designed and built by Northrop Grumman: the Operational Linescan System (OLS), which has been produced in Baltimore since the 1970s, and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS), produced at company facilities in Azusa, Calif. -
NASA and Northrop Grumman Partner
Researchers will collaborate on the development of advanced civil radar system architectures that can be leveraged into new space-based remote sensing instruments with revolutionary performance characteristics. These systems will help scientists measure with far greater accuracy, precision, and detail such things as the 3-D structure of Mars and other heavenly bodies, as well as cloud composition and other characteristics on Earth to better understand climate change. -
2010 Pioneer Award From IEEE/AESS
Daniel Tazartes was honored for his work on the development of inertial instruments and algorithms which enable the mechanization of highly accurate strapdown inertial navigation systems. -
MESSENGER Orbits Mercury
Mercury has been relatively unexplored, in part because of challenges to slowing down a spacecraft sufficiently to enter orbit. This is where the Scalable SIRU™ made a critical difference. As the sole governing sensor during the Mercury orbit insertion maneuver, the Scalable SIRU™ provided precise navigation information to guide the spacecraft into a 15-minute engine burn, which markedly slowed the vehicle. Within this narrow window MESSENGER utilized Mercury's gravitational pull to enter orbit. -
SBIRS GEO-1 Launched
SBIRS GEO-1 includes highly sophisticated scanning and staring sensors that will deliver improved infrared sensitivity and a reduction in area revisit times over the current constellation. The scanning sensor will provide a wide area surveillance of missile launches and natural phenomena across the earth, while the staring sensor will be used to observe smaller areas of interest with superior sensitivity. -
HRG Achieves 18 Million Operating Hours in Space with 100% success
The HRG is lightweight, highly reliable gyro and features a thin-walled quartz shell sensing element. It has been used in commercial, government and civil space missions for domestic and international customers and has been launched aboard more than 125 spacecraft. It was first used on the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, which was the first of NASA's Discovery missions and the first mission ever to place a spacecraft into orbit around an asteroid. -
NPP Earth-observing Satellite
The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) on board NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite, NPP, acquired its first measurements on November 8, 2011. The image shows the ATMS channel 18 data, which measures water vapor in the lower atmosphere. -
USAF’s New Missile Warning Satellite Providing Vital Infrared Data to Users
The spacecraft is the most technologically advanced military infrared satellite ever developed. The satellite includes highly sophisticated scanning and staring sensors that deliver improved infrared sensitivity and a reduction in area revisit times over the current constellation. The satellite’s sensors are now performing at better than specification levels, and producing and delivering pre-certified data to the user community.
