ABSL Lithium-ion Batteries Enable European GPS Satellite Mission To Be Extended
15th April 2008
Following the successful completion of the GIOVE-A satellite’s twenty-seven month mission, powered by ABSL’s Lithium Ion batteries, the European Space Agency (ESA) has recently announced that it considers GIOVE-A a “full mission success” and is therefore extending the mission by a further year. GIOVE-A is the first satellite in orbit as part of the new, European-led Galileo satellite navigation system.
ESA has already awarded SSTL a contract for a second follow-on Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) navigation satellite named GIOVE-A2, which will also feature ABSL’s market-leading Lithium-ion batteries.
Rob Spurrett, Director of ABSL Space Products, said “ABSL is pleased to have made a very significant contribution to SSTL’s award-winning GIOVE team. This team was justly recognised by receiving the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Team Silver Award, and the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award for its exceptional contribution to space.”
GIOVE-A was launched into MEO on 28th December 2005 and was the first spacecraft in this orbit to have been powered by Lithium-ion battery technology. The first Galileo signals were transmitted from space on 12th January 2006. GIOVE-A was also SSTL’s first spacecraft to use Lithium-ion batteries - all previous programs employed Nickel Cadmium battery technology. Since then SSTL has awarded ABSL contracts for more than ten further spacecraft.
The GIOVE-A spacecraft was essential to the success of the wider Galileo program as it was critical for Europe to demonstrate operations in MEO in order to secure allocation of necessary frequencies for the system’s timing signals from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). This objective was achieved three-months ahead of the deadline imposed by the ITU.
ABSL is the leading supplier of Lithium-ion battery technology to the space industry. Thirty-four spacecraft which rely upon ABSL’s batteries have now been successfully launched. ABSL has received contracts for Lithium-ion batteries for more than eighty spacecraft and launch vehicles from customers spread across five continents. To date, ABSL’s Lithium-ion battery hardware has now clocked over 9,000 cell years of operation in space without failure. The high reliability and fault tolerance of ABSL batteries have been the reasons for selection by customers on long duration space programs where mission success is absolutely essential.
-ENDS-
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Notes To Editors:
ABSL Space Products
ABSL Space Products is a trading name of ABSL Power Solutions Incorporated. ABSL Power Solutions Inc is wholly owned by ABSL Power Solutions Ltd.
ABSL Space Products is the world leader in the supply of Lithium-ion batteries for space applications with contracts for more than eighty spacecraft and launch vehicles. ABSL supplied the first rechargeable Lithium-ion battery flown in space and more than thirty spacecraft in orbit are now using ABSL Lithium-ion battery technology.
ABSL has built up a global customer base, winning major contracts from NASA, ESA, and major prime manufacturers in North America, Europe and the rest of the world.
ABSL has demonstrated in orbit the most reliable Lithium-ion product available for the space market by clocking up over 9,000 cell years of space operation without failure.
ABSL has been active in the space industry since the 1960s during the early days of ion-thruster development. During the 1980s, ABSL was the largest non-US subcontractor to the United States Strategic Development Initiative (SDI). More recently, effort has been focused on its power and optical products, such as LIDAR and infrared calibration systems.
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