Milestone Marks Delivery of All Five Satellites for NASA

Swales Aerospace announced the delivery of the last of five THEMIS micro-satellite spacecraft buses. The THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) mission is unique in that it is NASA’s first scientific research micro- satellite constellation consisting of five identical, high performance satellites flying in the Earth’s magnetosphere, a region of the upper atmosphere extending for hundreds of thousands of miles. The mission will determine the energetic triggering of explosive particle events in geo-space that manifest themselves, in the northern skies, as violent eruptions of the aurora, or northern lights. Each of the five satellites carries a comprehensive suite of electric, magnetic and particle instruments.

Mike Cerneck, CEO of Swales Aerospace, said, “This accomplishment reflects the level of corporate integrity by which we meet commitments made to our customers.” “I am very proud of our team,” he added.

“The Swales team persevered under very challenging technical and schedule conditions,” said Dan Mark, Swales Vice President for Civil Programs. “Swales’ micro-satellite constellation technology validates the last decade’s assertion that industry production capacity is crucial to the success of the NASA’s Heliophysics roadmap,” he added.

Swales Aerospace has successfully completed the delivery of all five spacecraft buses and the satellite dispenser probe carrier. All spacecraft were integrated in Swales’ Beltsville, Maryland, facilities and were delivered to the Principal Investigator team at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) under NASA’s Medium Explorer (MIDEX) Program. The mission is planned for an October 2006 launch.

About Swales

Swales Aerospace is an employee-owned company that provides a broad range of aerospace engineering services to the Department of Defense, NASA, and commercial aerospace clients. Headquartered in Beltsville, Maryland, the company posted annual revenues in excess of $193 million in 2005 and employs more than 900 professionals in offices in Maryland, Virginia and California. Additional information is available at http://www.swales.com