MDA Space Missions
Encyclopedia
MDA Space Missions is an operating unit of MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates
, comprising the following wholly owned subsidiaries:
In January 2005, the unit won a high profile project (valued at $154 million USD
) to provide a rescue and repair solution for the Hubble Space Telescope
. The contract was later canceled by NASA
.
MacDonald Dettwiler
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. is a Richmond, British Columbia-based Canadian aerospace, information services and products company, employing over 3000 people throughout Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, under the MDA brand name....
, comprising the following wholly owned subsidiaries:
- Alliance Spacesystems, a space robotics company based in Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, Boulder, ColoradoBoulder, ColoradoBoulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
and Signal Hill, CaliforniaSignal Hill, CaliforniaSignal Hill is a small city in California located in the Greater Los Angeles area. Signal Hill, completely surrounded by the city of Long Beach, was incorporated on April 22, 1924, roughly three years after oil was discovered in Signal Hill. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
.
MDA contributions
In addition to design, safety, reliability, and quality assurance engineering services, MDA's contributions include:- Canadarm
- Canadarm2 for the International Space StationInternational Space StationThe International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
- RADARSAT-1RADARSAT-1Radarsat-1 is Canada's first commercial Earth observation satellite.-Mission:It was launched at 14h22 UTC on November 4, 1995 from Vandenberg AFB in California, into a sun-synchronous orbit above the Earth with an altitude of 798 kilometers and inclination of 98.6 degrees...
, the first commercial radar earth observation satellite - RADARSAT-2RADARSAT-2Radarsat-2 is an Earth observation satellite that was successfully launched December 14, 2007 for the Canadian Space Agency by Starsem, using a Soyuz FG launch vehicle, from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome....
, the world's most advanced civilian radar earth observation satellite - Special Purpose Dexterous ManipulatorSpecial Purpose Dexterous ManipulatorDextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator , is a two armed robot, or telemanipulator, which is part of the Mobile Servicing System on the International Space Station , and extends the function of this system to replace some activities otherwise requiring spacewalks...
also known as "Dextre" or the "Canada Hand" - The robotic arm and weather station on PhoenixPhoenix (spacecraft)Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25, 2008...
mission to Mars
In January 2005, the unit won a high profile project (valued at $154 million USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
) to provide a rescue and repair solution for the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
. The contract was later canceled by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
.
Under development
- In March 2011, MDA announced funding partner and inaugural launch customer (IntelsatIntelsatIntelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
) for the commercially-developedPrivate spaceflightPrivate spaceflight is flight above Earth altitude conducted by and paid for by an entity other than a government. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology augmented by collaboration with affiliated design...
MDA Space Infrastructure Servicing vehicle, a refueling depot and service spacecraft for communication satellites in geosynchronous orbitGeosynchronous orbitA geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period that matches the Earth's sidereal rotation period...
—slated to be the first in-space propellant depotPropellant depotAn orbital propellant depot is a cache of propellant that is placed on an orbit about the Earth or another body to allow spacecraft to be fuelled in space. Launching a spacecraft separately from some of its propellant enables missions with more massive payloads...
in the history of spaceflight. Launch planned for 2015.