EL SEGUNDO, Calif., May 25 — A joint effort to provide comprehensive human support services for the growing commercial human spaceflight industry was announced by Wyle Laboratories Inc. and Paragon Space Development Corporation today at the International Space Development Conference.
These services will help commercial human spaceflight providers screen potential customers and flight crew, prepare them for flight, provide medical and human factors support during the flight, provide the hardware systems necessary to keep the commercial astronauts alive, healthy and comfortable in space, and, if necessary, help them readapt to ground life after their space flight.
“Combining our hardware expertise in developing life support systems with Wyle’s years of experience in supporting all aspects of human spaceflight allow our team to provide unprecedented service to the commercial human spaceflight community,” said Taber McCallum, CEO of Paragon Space Development Corporation of Tucson, Ariz.
“Paragon has a strong history of working with spacecraft and aircraft teams to solve the most challenging problems, specializing in complex thermal analysis and thermal control system designs. This allows for a more customized solution for each specific need along with practical Environmental Control and Life Support systems, human factors and crew systems solutions optimized for specific applications in extreme environments.”
Paragon’s patent-pending Environmental Control and Life Support System Human Rating Facility gives it the unique ability to fully test and certify life support and thermal control hardware by testing extreme scenarios in a safe and cost effective manner in a laboratory chamber environment. “Wyle’s expertise in space medicine and human performance in space means we can ensure space flight customers are prepared for flight,” said Dr. Vernon McDonald, Wyle’s director of commercial human spaceflight. Through its life sciences services contracts with NASA, Wyle has supported more than two-thirds of all people who have traveled into space.
Taken together, this combined approach to passenger health and life support can help reduce the overall risk of spaceflight, and potentially reduce the liability costs incurred by the commercial spaceflight companies.
“With many commercial companies developing plans to send paying customers into space in the next few years, the need for systems and services to support those customers is immediate,” said McDonald. Founded in 1993, Paragon Space Development Corporation is a full-service aerospace engineering and technology development firm. Paragon is a major supplier of Environmental Control and Life Support System and sub-system design for the aerospace industry with expertise in thermal control for orbiting and re-entering spacecraft and hyper-velocity aircraft. For more information, see: www.paragonsdc.com
Wyle Laboratories, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., is a leader in providing high tech aerospace engineering, testing and research services to commercial, industrial and government customers. The company also provides life sciences services, special test systems and other technical support services to the aerospace, defense, nuclear power, communications and transportation industries. For more information, see: www.wylelabs.com
For more information, press only:
Carol Hammond, Paragon SDC 520-903-1000 ext 14; chammond@paragonsdc.com
Dan Reeder of Wyle media relations 310-563-6834, dan.reeder@wylelabs.com
