Advice for Alternate-Grade Electronics Aerospace is conducting collaborative research with industrial, government, and academic partners to characterize the tolerance of selected alternate-grade electronics to particle radiation… June 2019
Launch Mission Success Launch reliability predictions are a vital input to forward-looking studies. Medium-class vehicles like the Atlas V, Delta IV, and Falcon 9 have traditionally been the most reliable while heavy- and… June 2019
Lessons Learned: Ground Control to Major Ops One of the biggest challenges of transitioning from a heritage ground system to a new ground system is not to disrupt current operations. June 2019
Outpacing the Threat Aerospace hosted a forum of government and industry in February to develop an actionable plan aligned with the National Defense Strategy. March 2019
Lessons Learned: Contamination Conundrum Failure to implement cleanliness controls when loading propellant into space vehicles can have serious mission impacts. March 2019
Disruptive Manufacturing Techniques Add Up Additive manufacturing for space promises process agility, cost and schedule savings. Aerospace and SMC recently hosted workshops on this rapidly advancing technology. March 2019
Weight Watchers: Keeping Track of Vehicle Mass Properties The Satellite Weight Growth Database, containing mass property details and trends for more than 65 vehicles, supports critical decisions for the rapid procurement of space vehicles in a dynamic… March 2019
Enterprising Systems Engineering Almost 300 participants from more than 65 organizations—DOD, the Intelligence Community, civil and commercial space, tool vendors, and academia—attended the Systems Engineering Forum hosted by… March 2019
Making the Connection: Copper Bond Wire Due to rising gold prices, manufacturers are looking to use alternative materials for bonds. The lack of qualification procedures raises concerns when using copper bond wires. March 2019
Tin Whiskers: Predicting the Risk Tin whiskers can be a self-solving problem, depending on certain factors. December 2018
Cyber Defense for Cloud-Based Applications Aerospace and Air Force researchers created a cyber defense capability using commercial and custom components. December 2018
Software Assurance for a Resilient Ground Enterprise An automated web-based tool runs several software analyzers simultaneously. December 2018
Get Smart: The Future of Space System Manufacture Smart manufacturing will have a profound effect on future space architectures, but certain challenges remain. December 2018
Pros and Cons of Agile Software Development Can agile software development processes increase the odds of achieving operational requirements? December 2018
Collaborating for Faster Acquisition Space acquisition is not broken, says Col. James Reynolds; however, the environment and threats have changed. September 2018
The Pitfalls Of Too Much Gold Gold embrittlement can result in solder joint loss of connectivity, costly unit rework, reduced mission life, reduced mission data, increased operational complexity, loss of redundancy, and mission… September 2018