Redwire Corporation, a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, announced that it has been awarded a contract by SpaceTech GmbH to provide critical avionics technology for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM) satellites. The NGGM satellites are ESA’s contribution to a planned NASA and ESA Earth observation satellite constellation known as Mass Change and Geophysics International Constellation (MAGIC).
MAGIC will combine four satellites, two NGGM satellites developed through ESA and two GRACE satellites developed through NASA and the German Aerospace Center, to measure fluctuations in Earth’s gravitational field. The planned constellation will provide unprecedented data for water management applications, including monitoring droughts, floods, ice melts, and sea level rise.
Redwire’s wholly owned subsidiary, Redwire Space NV, will design and build the engineering qualification model of the spacecraft’s Instrument Control Unit (ICU). The ICU will serve as the central system for managing and controlling NGGM’s primary scientific instrument, handling data collection and processing and communication between the instrument and the satellite’s other onboard systems. The ICU will play a pivotal role in the mission’s ability to observe small variations in Earth’s gravitational field.
“We are proud to bring our unparalleled expertise in spacecraft avionics and control systems to support ESA’s contribution to this important multinational mission,” said Mike Gold, Redwire President of Civil and International Space Business. “Redwire’s flight-proven, high-reliability avionics is perfectly suited for the complexity of NGGM and MAGIC, and continues to enable Europe’s most game-changing missions, including IXV, Proba-2, Proba-V, and Proba-3, with additional missions scheduled for launch in the future.”
Redwire’s European facility in Belgium has more than 40 years of spaceflight heritage developing spacecraft platforms and success delivering innovative technology for key ESA programs. Redwire was the prime contractor for ESA’s Proba-1, Proba-2, and Proba-V missions, which have a combined flight time of 50 years without failure.
Leveraging its legacy of innovation and excellence, Redwire continues to support other ESA programs, including Skimsat, a technology demonstrator for a small satellite platform designed to operate in very low Earth orbit; the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism for the lunar Gateway; the Hera mission to study the Didymos binary asteroid system; and the Proba-3 mission, the first precision formation flying mission that will investigate the Sun’s corona.
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