Aug 10 1984
From The Space Library
NASA announced that it had awarded an industry team headed by RCA's Astro-Electronics Division, Princeton, N.J., a $260.3 million contract for design, development, and fabrication of the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS). Other major participants in the team were TRW Electronics Systems Group, Space Communications Division, Redondo Beach, Calif.; Communications Satellite Corporation (ComSatCorp), Washington, D.C.; Motorola Inc., Government Electronics Group, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Hughes Aircraft Company's Electron Dynamics Division, Torrance, Calif.; and Electromagnetic Sciences Inc., Norcross, Ga.
One of the primary goals of the ACTS program was to develop advanced satellite communications technologies, including satellite switching and processing techniques and multibeam satellite antennas, using the 20- and 30-gigahertz bands. These technologies would be needed for the increased satellite capacity for the mid-1990s.
The ACTS program results would make available to corporations, universities, and government agencies the ACTS spacecraft and ground systems capabilities for experimentation. Organizations that met specified requirements for space communications research would participate in such experiments during the flight phase of the program. NASA had received over 30 expressions of interest in experimental use of the new satellite system.
NASA had scheduled ACTS for launch by the Space Shuttle in 1989. (NASA Release 84-113; LeRC Release 84-54)
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