[SatNews] …"exciting product to our customers that is evolutionary in technology, and has the potential to revolutionize the satellite industry.”
Vanguard Space Technologies, Inc. (Vanguard) announced today that Harris Corporation has selected Vanguard as a partner to produce a lightweight antenna reflector product for space borne application that offers technological and mass advantages over other reflector technologies. Vanguard specializes in the engineering, tooling, manufacturing, assembly and testing of high-performance, lightweight and precision aerospace structures.
Harris' Mixed Flex Reflector offers technological and mass advantages over other reflector technologies
The Harris’ Fixed Mesh Reflector (FMR) product leverages the complementary expertise of both companies. The FMRs utilize Harris’ expertise in designing and building lightweight space antennas and mesh solutions, coupled with Vanguard’s composite structure design and manufacturing expertise to produce the supporting structural components. Harris will be responsible for overall antenna design, mesh installation, and sales of FMRs to customers worldwide.
FMRs can result in up to 50 percent mass reduction over solid and triax construction reflectors and are available for all applications from UHF to V-Band with RF reflectivity and surface accuracies equivalent to the best solid reflector technologies available today. FMRs are designed for C-, Ku-, and Ka-band applications requiring small spot beams for efficient frequency reuse resulting in increased satellite capacity. In addition, the mesh surface results in no acoustic loading, shadowing, and minimum solar torque.
“The FMR product builds on Harris precision mesh surface used for more than 30 years on over 80 large unfurlable antenna reflectors, as well as Vanguard’s nearly 20 years, over 95 reflectors structure heritage,” said Mr. Frank Belknap, CEO of Vanguard. “We are proud to have been selected by Harris to offer this exciting product to our customers that is evolutionary in technology, and has the potential to revolutionize the satellite industry.”
