EMCORE (EMKR) is winning an increasing number of solar panel contracts to be used in spacecraft and it got another one today. The company announced a $9 – 11 million deal to provide solar panels for ATK Space Systems UltraFlex solar arrays to be used in the Orion spacecraft being developed by Lockheed Martin for NASA. The initial contract is for two vehicles, but could be expanded.
The Orion is expected to be the next generation space vehicle, transporting astronauts to and from the Intl Space Station, the moon and other destinations. NASA expects to order several of these over the next decade, but this deal alone won’t contribute much to EMKR earnings considering the company did nearly $200 million in revenue last year.
VP of ATK Dave Messner commented, “We are very excited to be using the EMCORE ZTJ triple junction solar cells in the ATK Ultraflex™ solar array design. The ATK UltraFlex™ solar array design will be providing 14kW of power per shipset with superior performance characteristics and mission enabling features, including ultra-lightweight, high strength, high stiffness, and compact stowage volume. The EMCORE solution will enable ATK to provide the UltraFlex™ solar array configured for Orion so that it will provide over twenty times the strength and ten times the stiffness of our conventional rigid panel solar arrays, at less than one-third the weight.”