[SatNews] Orbital ATK, Inc. (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, today announced that it recently signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to produce propellant and pressurant tanks for Lockheed Martin’s updated A2100 satellite platform. The five-year contract continues a 20-year relationship between Orbital ATK and Lockheed Martin for satellite fuel tanks produced by the company’s Space Systems Group in Commerce, California.
A2100 Image courtesy of Lockheed Martin.
“We have been a valued and trusted supplier to Lockheed Martin for over two decades, delivering more than 75 flight sets of tanks for the A2100 satellite program,” said Dave Shanahan, Vice President and General Manager of Orbital ATK’s Space Components Division. “Since the mid-1990s, we have become the ‘go-to supplier’ for these tanks. This latest contract represents the continued vote of confidence from a valued customer in our engineering and analysis strength and our facility that provides end-to-end manufacturing capabilities for tanks. We look forward to continuing this successful relationship for many years to come.”
“This contract and technology are important elements of our modernized A2100 satellite,” said Mike Cacheiro, Vice President of Global Supply Chain, Lockheed Martin. “By signing long-term agreements like this, we’re able to offer our customers competitive prices coupled with superior technology to meet a host of missions.”
Lockheed Martin’s A2100 satellite constellation offers global telecommunications applications for government, commercial and civil customers. Since the mid-1990s, Orbital ATK has supplied all but two of the flight sets for the A2100. The company was the innovator for the hybrid composite, reinforced propellant tanks and continues to be the industry leader in this technology.
Under this new contract, which extends through March 2020, Orbital ATK will produce all of the modernized A2100 flight sets for the next five years. A flight set includes:
- A hybrid composite pair of liquid propellant tanks
- A pair of high-pressure/high-performance, titanium-lined pressurant tanks
- As required, a pair of titanium-lined ion propulsion xenon tanks
The liquid propellant tanks contain a high-performance Propellant Management Device (PMD) designed and analyzed by PMD Technologies, the foremost designer of low-gravity fluid dynamics acquisition devices. The PMD controls the fluid during all operational scenarios providing gas-free propellant to the satellite’s thrusters. The all-titanium PMDs assure long-term propellant compatibility throughout mission life. Orbital ATK has delivered more than 1,400 PMD tank assemblies to date.
Orbital ATK’s Space Components Division is the world’s leading producer of titanium propellant tanks used in military, scientific and commercial satellites, space-launch vehicles and space-exploration vehicles, with more than 600 designs qualified and more than 6,100 tanks delivered. The tanks have been a part of nearly every large U.S. launch vehicle and most of the satellites flying today, with 100 percent reliability.
