Lockheed Martin
Space Systems is one of two contractors selected by the NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. to perform its spacecraft
accommodation study for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
(GLAST) Observatory. Planned for launch in 2006, GLAST will inaugurate
a new epoch in space-based physics investigation.

“We’re extremely proud as a company to have been given the
opportunity to develop a design for GLAST that optimizes science
return through a precise understanding of all the interfaces between
the spacecraft and the scientific instruments,” said Dr. Domenick
Tenerelli, Space Systems program manager for GLAST. “A mission that
seeks to understand the most energetic events in the cosmos is
particularly exciting. We’re delighted to be working with NASA Goddard
to develop a low-risk, low-cost design for this fundamental mission to
better understand the structure and evolution of the universe.”

The Space Systems design will incorporate the LM 900 bus, used on
the IKONOS commercial remote sensing spacecraft built for Space
Imaging of Thornton, Co. The LM 900 is an ideal spacecraft for GLAST’s
two main instruments, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the GLAST
Burst Monitor (GBM). The LM 900 provides a platform that meets or
exceed all requirements for command and data handling, power
distribution, pointing and control, telecommunications, software
interfaces, thermal interfaces and structural integrity.

Additionally, Space Systems brings to the table a long commitment
to space science. The company has provided spacecraft, as well as
systems engineering, integration, and test, for the Hubble Space
Telescope, Lunar Prospector, Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global
Exploration, Gravity Probe-B, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility,
and the Space Interferometry Mission. Design concepts for NASA’s Next
Generation Space Telescope and the Terrestrial Planet Finder are also
in progress at the Space Systems facility in Sunnyvale.

GLAST will identify and study nature’s high-energy particle
accelerators through observations of active galactic nuclei, pulsars,
stellar-mass black holes, supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts,
diffuse galactic and extragalactic high-energy radiation, and
mysterious unidentified gamma-ray sources. GLAST will use these
sources to probe important physical parameters of the Galaxy and the
Universe that are not readily measured with other observations. The
high-energy gamma rays will be used to search for a variety of
fundamentally new phenomena, such as particle dark matter and Hawking
radiation from evaporating black holes.

The scientific objectives of the GLAST mission require a
high-energy gamma-ray telescope with:

  • Angular resolution sufficient to identify point sources with
    objects at other wavelengths.
  • A wide field-of-view that will permit the study of sources
    that exhibit extreme intensity variations on timescales from
    seconds to months or longer.
  • A large effective area to detect a large sample of sources and
    determine their energy spectra.

New detector technologies that offer significant improvements over
existing hardware (a factor of between 10 and 100 improvement in
source sensitivity, depending on energy) will allow these requirements
to be met well within the cost constraints of an intermediate class
astrophysics mission.

GLAST is an international collaboration of government agencies
from the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Sweden. The
LAT is a joint project with NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy;
and it will be constructed by Stanford University, the Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center, the University of California, Santa Cruz, the
Naval Research Laboratory, NASA Goddard, and the international
partners.

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, along with the University of
Alabama in Huntsville and Germany will build the GBM. The overall
mission management resides at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, headquartered in Denver,
Colo., is one of the major operating units of Lockheed Martin
Corporation. Space Systems designs, develops, tests, manufactures, and
operates a variety of advanced technology systems for military, civil
and commercial customers. Chief products include a full-range of space
launch systems, including heavy-lift capability, ground systems,
remote sensing and communications satellites for commercial and
government customers, advanced space observatories and interplanetary
spacecraft, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense systems.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global
enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development,
manufacture, and integration of advanced-technology systems, products,
and services. The Corporation’s core businesses are systems
integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services. Employing
more than 140,000 people worldwide, Lockheed Martin had 2000 sales
surpassing $25 billion.

Note to Editors: Low- and high-resolution JPEG image files of
GLAST as it might appear in space are available at the following URL:

http://lmms.external.lmco.com/photos/civil_space/glast/glast.html

For more information about Lockheed Martin Space Systems —
Sunnyvale, see our website at http://lmms.external.lmco.com.