Airborne has been awarded with the contract for the manufacturing of the solar array panel substrates for two Sentinel 1 satellites. The Sentinel satellites are part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program (GMES), a long term ESA program dedicated to earth observation to serve the European community. Sentinel 1 will carry a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar system (C-SAR), a radar applications to monitor land movements and earth quakes with a sub-millimeter resolution.

Airborne will manufacture the solar array substrates, the low-weight high-stiffness sandwich structures that will support the high-performance photo-voltaic solar cells. The program has started with the manufacturing of Design Verification Test samples at Airborne, that will undergo extensive environmental testing at Dutch Space. With the DVT test program the panel design and configuration will be verified against the full range of operational design and life requirements on a sub-system level.

This contract is an important step towards further industrialisation of the solar array production capabilities at Airborne. The Sentinel program is carried out together with Dutch Space, who is responsible for the design, integration and testing of the complete solar array system of Sentinel-1. The program strengthens the cooperation between Dutch Space and Airborne, both looking forward to future projects.
For more information, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Bussines Manager Space.

website GMES: http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPgmes.html