Atlanta-based Crawford Satellite Services’ Transportable Earth Station Division said Nov. 10 that United Space Alliance (USA) had renewed through 2010 its contract to provide transmission services for space shuttle feeds via Ku-band trucks positioned in Florida and Virginia.
Crawford is primarily responsible for transmitting the video feed from the space shuttle’s external tank-mounted observation camera back to a television control center.
USA, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that maintains and operates the shuttle for NASA, has used Crawford for transmission of the external tank’s camera feed since the shuttle returned to flight in July 2006 following the Columbia accident two-and-a-half years earlier.
The final space shuttle mission is scheduled to occur in 2010, but NASA officials have said the remaining flights could spill over into 2011.
