Com Dev Wins Key Sale On New Li-Ion Space Qualified Battery

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Cambridge - Aug 28, 2003
COM DEV International Ltd. has been awarded a Euro 2.3 million (approximately CDN $3.5 million) contract to supply lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries to a European remote sensing satellite program. Further details with regard to the program and customer cannot be provided due to contractual restrictions imposed by the customer.

The product to be delivered is the li-ion battery that COM DEV has been developing and qualifying for space use over the past three years. This sale constitutes the first use of this new COM DEV battery product on a large high-powered satellite. It follows the premiere launch of a COM DEV li-ion battery subsystem on August 12, 2003 on a Canadian Space Agency science satellite.

Because of their low mass, high reliability and long life, li-ion batteries have greatly enhanced the use of cell phones and video recorders over the past few years.

Their introduction to space applications is expected to equally enhance the performance of future space satellites as well as reduce their mass and thus reduce the cost of launching them. COM DEV�s product features a scalable modular design that makes it a flexible solution, easily tailored to a wide range of uses.

Commenting on this award, COM DEV�s CEO, John Keating said, "One of the biggest challenges in introducing any new space product is getting flight heritage that demonstrates to customers that the product works well in space not just in the laboratory. The flight performance that we can now demonstrate gives us a strong competitive position in this new emerging market."

SPACEMART

Texas Scientists Developing Flywheel Batteries For Space Stations

Austin - Feb. 5, 2001
Solar cells work fine in sunshine, but do not generate electric power in the dark. That creates a special engineering problem for cells on the international space station because it is powered by solar cells on the giant set of wings recently attached to it. Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin are working to solve that problem.