TRW Completes Thermal Vacuum Testing of Lewis Satellite; NASA Satellite Nearing Completion.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 1996--Engineers at TRW Inc. have successfully completed thermal vacuum testing of the Lewis spacecraft, which TRW is building for NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI) program.

Three scientific instruments representing Lewis' payload are currently being integrated onto the spacecraft. Final environmental verification, including vibration and shock testing, will be performed in May leading up to Lewis' completion on schedule early this summer. The satellite will be launched later this year.

"We are on track to complete the satellite in just two years," said George Reppucci, TRW's SSTI program manager. "This represents a major departure from the three, four or more years generally required to design, build and launch a new satellite."

SSTI is one of NASA's technology initiatives to demonstrate new techniques that will enhance the capabilities, speed the development and trim the costs of next-generation spacecraft and payloads. TRW's Space & Electronics Group (S&EG) is building LewisQa lightweight satellite named in honor of the famous explorer Meriwether LewisQunder a contract from NASA Headquarters awarded in 1994.

Lewis is based on TRW's advanced lightsat design, which allows for a fast-paced development schedule. The modular, standardized design permits the parallel manufacturing, integration and test of spacecraft subsystems and payload. Stream-lined processes, commercial practices and new qualification methods have contributed to production economies.

More than 25 new technologies and state-of-the-art components have been incorporated into Lewis, such as miniaturized cryocoolers, new composite structural materials, faster data processors, lightweight propellant tanks, and miniaturized star trackers.

Lewis will carry three scientific instruments for commercial remote sensing, earth observation and space science experiments. A hyperspectral imager will photograph the Earth in 384 narrow spectral bands, providing new views that are not available from existing remote sensing systems; a broad-area sensor will provide spectrally resolved earth images; and an extreme ultraviolet spectrometer will take images of the night sky and the cosmic background for astrophysics.

TRW Space & Electronics Group, with headquarters in Redondo Beach, has built more than 185 communications, scientific and defense spacecraft; produced, integrated, and tested more than 130 payloads; developed more than 200 advanced space instruments; and integrated some 550 experiments into spacecraft. It is an operating unit of Cleveland-based TRW Inc., which provides advanced technology products and services for the automotive and space and defense markets. TRW's 1995 worldwide sales totaled more than $10 billion.

CONTACT: Sally Koris, 310/812-4721