The New At&T

Solar arrays For the past 20 years, BAe has built solar arrays and deploy- ment mechanisms for a number of spacecraft. These have in- cluded the Ariel 3, 4 and 6, X-3 (Prospero) and X-4 (Miranda), and Cos-B scientific satellites. Twelve solar array sets were provided for Intelsat IV and IVA communications satellites, and four sets for the American Corn- star satellites. More recently, BAe has been developing the flexible roll-out arrays having a total area of 60sq m for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Each wing of this array measures 11.82m (span) by 2.83m. The complete array comprising some 48,760 silicon solar cells, weighs 160kg and generates 6kW at the be- ginning of its life in orbit. The arrays are unreeled from drums and deployed automati- cally either side of Space Telescope. A duplicate drive and duplicate wiring is pro- vided. Provision has also been made for the arrays to be un- rolled manually by astronauts Forced to compete for the long- distance market with lowe...