TRW Wins Study Contract for NASA’s Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope, Advances to Finals of Competition to Build Compton GRO Successor

TRW
has been awarded a six-month study contract by NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., to refine its development
concept for NASA’s Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), a
successor to the TRW-built Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (Compton
GRO).

The contract effectively places TRW in the “finals” of the
competition slated to select NASA’s GLAST mission prime contractor in
spring 2002. Scheduled for launch in 2005, GLAST will study celestial
phenomena that produce gamma rays, the most energetic form of
radiation.

“This contract builds on TRW’s previous GLAST studies and our
experience as the spacecraft producer and integrator of some of NASA’s
most successful science missions, including Compton GRO and more
recently, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory,” said Fred Ricker, vice
president and general manager, TRW Space & Laser Programs Division.
“We’re committed to making GLAST equally successful, both as a science
mission and as a validation of NASA’s Rapid II Spacecraft Catalog
approach.”

Rapid II Catalog is a procurement practice designed to enable
rapid development and production of spacecraft using standardized
spacecraft products. Under terms of the contract, TRW will work with
NASA to define the best ways to modify TRW spacecraft in the catalog
to accommodate the interface requirements of the GLAST instruments and
the overall requirements of the GLAST mission. TRW expects to use its
T-300 line of spacecraft as a baseline for the GLAST mission.

GLAST will carry a 3,000-kilogram science payload comprising the
GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT), provided by Stanford University, and
the GLAST Burst Monitor, provided by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight
Center, Huntsville, Ala. The instruments will study cosmic phenomena
such as gamma ray bursts, neutron stars, supernova remnants and
distant galaxies fueled by super massive black holes at their centers.
The LAT instrument is expected to be about 30 times more sensitive to
gamma ray events than the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope
used aboard Compton GRO.

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, TRW provides advanced technology
products and services for global automotive, space and defense,
telecommunications and information technology markets. TRW news
releases are available on the corporate Web site: www.trw.com.