AeroAstro Completes STPSat-1 Integration.

ASHBURN, Va. -- AeroAstro, Inc., a leading provider of small satellites and related technology products, today announced the completion of bus integration on the STPSat-1 satellite, a low-earth-orbiting satellite that will be launched this year.

The space vehicle is being developed under contract to the DoD Space Test Program (STP) headquartered at Kirtland AFB, and will be the first DoD STP mission specifically designed to fly space experiments on the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA). This event marks the successful completion of the electrical and mechanical integration of all spacecraft components and payload elements. Bus functional testing is in progress at AeroAstro's Virginia headquarters, to be followed by environmental tests at the Naval Research Laboratory later this year.

STPSat-1's payload comprises three experiments: the primary experiment, Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER), is a high-resolution ultraviolet spectrometer based on the new optical technique known as Spatial Heterodyne Spectroscopy (SHS). SHS facilitates the design of low mass, low power, high throughput spectrometers for space-based remote sensing. The two secondary experiments are the Computerized Ionospheric Tomography Receiver in Space (CITRIS), which will investigate irregularities that affect propagation of satellite-to-ground links for GPS and communications; and the Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS)-based PicoSat Inspector (MEPSI), a miniature free-flyer that will be released from STPSat-1 to demonstrate MEMS utility and related microsystems for proximity operations.

STPSat-1 is currently scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on an Atlas 5, along with five other payloads, in late 2006.

Lt Col Daniel J. Griffith, Director of the DoD Space Test Program, remarked, "The DoD Space Test Program is excited about this milestone on STPSat-1. Along with our AeroAstro teammates, we believe that this marks significant progress toward the launch of three valuable DoD experiments on the first ESPA launch in late 2006 - a critical part of STP's first EELV launch, and the most complicated mission that STP has had in its 40 year history."

Patricia Davis, Executive VP and General Manager, Space, at AeroAstro, Inc., said, "We are pleased to achieve this important milestone on the STPSat-1 program. AeroAstro is proud to be a part of the first ESPA launch complement, and to support STP's role as the primary provider of spaceflight for the entire Department of Defense space research community."

This project is sponsored by the United States Air Force, Air Force Space Command Detachment 12, Space and Missile System Center, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico 87117-5778.