and Honeywell, phases one through three
totaled $105 million.
“The component of phase one that
helped win phases two and three of the
contract was the 20 percent scaled model
of the full-scale model,” says Carl Schaefer,
program manager for the LightningStrike
VTOL X-Plane. “This model demonstrated
to DARPA that the avionic system works
and ensured the design has all of the necessary components and capabilities to
build upward from there.”
The full-scale plane is scheduled to be
completed in late 2017 and flight tested
in early 2018.
“The LightningStrike VTOL-X could
potentially be used in every sector—
commercial, private and military,” says
Thompson. “The intent of this plane is to
push the limits of the VTOL technology.
Once we prove the technology works, it
can really go in any platform.”
A rendering of the
LightningStrike VTOL X-Plane.
TMC Technologies’ STF-1 Satellite
TMC Technologies, in partnership with
NASA’s Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) program, West Virginia University (WVU) and NASA’s West Virginia
Space Grant Consortium, has been selected
by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative to
design and construct the first space satellite from the Mountain State.
West Virginia’s CubeSat—a small, miniaturized space satellite about the size of
a loaf of bread that performs space and
earth science—will be launched by NASA
in late 2017. This satellite, named Simulation-To-Flight 1 (STF-1), will focus
on TMC software simulation capabilities and demonstrate how simulation of
space hardware can lower overall satellite
mission risks and ensure mission success.
The STF-1’s primary objective is to be
able to run spacecraft flight software on
a laptop computer and have it think it
is really in space. The major benefits of
this capability are the ability to perform
flight software development earlier, aid
in the verification and validation process
and begin the mission planning activities
sooner. In addition to TMC simulation
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capabilities, STF-1 will contain WVU
science payloads aimed at space weather
research, navigation and radiation-tolerant materials.
TMC and its partners submitted the
STF-1 CubeSat proposal in November
2014. In February 2015, NASA announced
that STF-1 had been chosen as one of the
14 selected. West Virginia was the only
rookie state chosen by NASA to build
the satellite.
“STF-1 is very important for West
Virginia,” says Justin Morris, NASA IV&V
STF-1 lead. “It demonstrates cutting-edge
technology being built by West Virginia
natives in West Virginia.”
STF-1 is scheduled to launch on a brandnew rocket named the Electron, which is
currently being built and tested by Rocket
Labs USA for NASA. The launch is planned
to have an inclination of 85 degrees and
an altitude of 500 km. This means STF-1
will travel pole to pole around Earth every
orbit, which takes 90 minutes. The STF-1
orbit will be about 100 km higher than
the International Space Station.
An STF-1 model showing
system placement and sizing.