General Atomics has received a contract from Advanced Space for the construction of an Oracle satellite. It will be used to conduct experiments in deep space.
In November 2022, the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced the issuance of a 72-million Advanced Space contract. The agreement stipulates the development of the Oracle spacecraft. It will be involved in a series of experiments that will be conducted in deep space.
Oracle’s main task will be to test a new navigation system designed for use outside of near-Earth orbit. To do this, the satellite will be placed in the vicinity of the Lagrange point L1 of the Earth–Moon system, located at a distance of about 320 thousand km from our planet. To carry out the experiment, Oracle will be equipped with a set of optical equipment built by Leidos. Another task of the device will be to test the environmentally friendly fuel developed by AFRL.
According to a statement by General Atomics, the ESPA satellite platform will be taken as the basis of Oracle’s design. In particular, it is used to create weather satellites for the needs of the US Space Forces. It is worth noting that this is not the first “lunar” contract of the company. In 2021, it received USD 22 million to develop a small reactor project that could be used to demonstrate nuclear rocket engine technology in lunar space.
Recall that Raytheon Intelligence&Space recently announced that it would design satellites to track missile launches based on a platform created by Lockheed Martin.
According to https://spacenews.com
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