Integral Systems, Inc.
announced today that it had been awarded a contract by the Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) in Laurel, Maryland to support
three upcoming deep space missions over the next five years.
Financial terms
were not disclosed.
APL is a not-for-profit research and development (R&D) division of Johns
Hopkins University and supports numerous NASA and Department of Defense space
missions.
An important customer of Integral Systems, APL has already fielded
Integral Systems’ EPOCH 2000-based satellite control centers for NEAR, a
satellite that recently executed the first-ever landing on an asteroid, and
TIMED, an atmospheric observatory scheduled to launch later this summer.
The
current contract supports three new missions: CONTOUR, which will visit the
nuclei of two comets; STEREO, which will observe powerful solar eruptions
known as coronal mass ejections; and MESSENGER, which will orbit the planet
Mercury.
All three spacecraft will employ EPOCH 2000 systems for their
development and mission operations phases.
According to Don Mack, vice president of Integral’s Integration and Test
Division, “APL has long embodied the faster-cheaper-better philosophy in their
missions.
Their use of Integral’s commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products
for everything from spacecraft testing to mission operations demonstrates that
COTS products like EPOCH offer a robust, low cost solution for the entire
spacecraft life cycle.”
Founded in 1982, Integral Systems is a leading provider of satellite
ground systems and has supported over 120 different satellite missions for
communications, science, meteorological, and earth resource applications.
In
addition to garnering new Integration & Test, control center, and data
processing work, the company continues to enhance its current position in
government and commercial marketplaces by offering innovative software
products and custom ground system development and integration services.
Customers throughout the world now use Integral Systems’ EPOCH 2000 software
product, the world’s first COTS satellite command and control software
package.
In addition to these products, the company provides satellite
payload processing, spacecraft integration and test, simulation, station
automation, and environmental monitoring systems. Through its wholly owned
subsidiary SAT, the company also provides satellite and terrestrial monitoring
systems to satellite operators and users throughout the world.
Integral
Systems has more than 230 employees working at company headquarters in Lanham,
Maryland, and at other locations in the U.S. and Europe, including its SAT
offices in Sunnyvale, California.
Except for statements of historical facts, this news release may contain
forward-looking statements about the company. Such statements are subject to
risks and uncertainties, including the company’s reliance on contracts and
subcontracts funded by the U.S. Government, which contracts and subcontracts
are subject to government regulations, audits and termination without cause,
competition in the ground systems industry, rapid technological changes in the
satellite industry and those other risks noted in the company’s SEC filings,
which may cause actual results to differ materially. The company assumes no
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements appearing in
this news release.
