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Raytheon Network Centric Systems has become the latest major business customer of Space Port Indiana, a company formed a little more than a year ago to perform lower-cost but demanding operational evaluation on equipment that must work perfectly in space.
Raytheon Co.’s Fort Wayne operations sent a commercial telemetry and global positioning system platform on a high-altitude balloon last month for testing in near space. Telemetry equipment is used to provide real-time information on the position and attitude of a rocket.
“This was a first step in testing hardware that will be used on future rocket flights at SPI. Part of the test was to understand the parameters that could be measured with the device under austere conditions,” the space port said in a statement about the project.
“In future rocket flights, engine thermal measurements, structural stresses and a host of other data will be collected. This helps to better understand methods and applications that will be best suited for a wider spectrum of customer flight requests,” the statement said.
“SPI asked Raytheon to be involved in the project as part of an ongoing development of airspace management and utilization efforts that are under way through July 2009. Raytheon has more flights planned at SPI in 2009.”
Brian Tanner, who started Space Port Indiana a little more than a year ago, said it already has a mix of contracts with customers ranging from defense agencies to industrial corporations and educational institutions.
A $4-million contract with Raytheon’s Fort Wayne operations and the importance of the work involved makes the company “a very important customer of Space Port Indiana,” Tanner said.
“We have a very good relationship with them.”
Testing the equipment in the 1-percent atmosphere of near space was about as close as the company could come to testing it in the rigors of real space, which include exposure to microgravity, extreme changes in temperature and high levels of radiation.
Tanner, Space Port’s president, declined to discuss the additional testing it will be doing for Raytheon, but said SPI soon would have some additional capabilities.
In addition to balloon lifts, its facility at the Columbus Municipal Airport has been providing customers with telemetry, guidance, tracking, GPS, communications and airspace management tools.
It just added a rocket engine test cell designed to accommodate up to 3,000 pounds of thrust, and that capability can be expanded to meet customer needs.
SPI will start rocket launches next month to offer an opportunity “to test within the rigorous environment of high(-gravity) loads, vibration and even rapid descent,” it said in the statement.
The company plans to launch Indiana’s first unmanned aerial vehicle in August and is working toward the first quarter of 2010 to become the country’s third Federal Aviation Administration Certified Launch Facility.
The certification “will open the door to widely expanded opportunities for launching rockets and other payloads,” Tanner said. “We’re trying to expand defense and space exploration activities in the state.”
From Innovator of the Year to Innovation of the Year?
Two former winners of the Business Weekly Innovation Awards are in contention for statewide Innovation of the Year recognition as finalists for the 2009 TechPoint Mira Awards.
TechPoint is a trade association for Indiana’s tech industry, and its annual awards program honors individuals, companies and educational institutions making some of the most important contributions to that sector of the state’s economy.
LacPro Industries, which won Business Weekly’s Innovator of the Year award in 2007, and Solstice Medical, which won the award last year, were among 63 finalists for Mira Awards selected from a record number of nominations.
Mira Award winners will be recognized May 16 at the Westin Indianapolis at an event hosted by TechPoint and presenting sponsor BKD.
Jim Jay, president and chief executive officer of TechPoint, said in a statement the 10th-annual Mira Awards Gala will help “focus attention on … the important role technology plays in our state’s economy.”
The CyberStates report published each year by TechAmerica, a national trade association for the tech industry, said the industry employs 71,000 in Indiana with an annual payroll of $4.2 billion.
No drive needed for area computer recycling
Area businesses don’t have to bring in their obsolete computer equipment anymore to have it recycled without charge by Summit City Asset Remarketing. SCAR has started collecting it for free.
“They don’t have to do the work; I’ll do the loading and the handling and the shipping,” said Matthew LaGrone, owner of the business. “There’s no minimum amount. Whether it’s one computer or laptop or a truckload, we’ll pick it up.”
SCAR keeps computer equipment out of landfills by breaking their components down into plastic and metal materials it sells to recyclers, he said.
In some instances, it is able to resell some of the components, and with computers that are outdated but still usable, it will refurbish and resell the equipment, splitting the proceeds with the companies replacing it.
In all cases, SCAR recommends destroying any hard drives that could have stored sensitive information at any time.
LaGrone said the company does not allow anything from the computers it recycles to get to landfills, and it provides recycling certificates for components that cannot be resold for reuse.
More information on SCAR services is available at its Web site, http://scarfw.com.
If you have items for the technology column, please contact Doug LeDuc by e-mail at
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, by phone at (260) 426-2640, ext. 309, or by mail at Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, 826 Ewing St., Fort Wayne, IN 46802.
Raytheon Network Centric Systems equipment was tested on a high-altitude balloon launched by Space Port Indiana. (Contributed photo)
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