Modular Space Vehicle critical design review completed by Northrop Grumman

Posted by John McHale
REDONDO BEACH, Calif., 10 June 2011. A systems requirement review (SRR) for the Modular Space Vehicle (MSV) program was completed by Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC) engineers. The SRR is the first part of a process to build the MSV, which is expected to reduce space operations costs.
The Northrop Grumman spacecraft will support multiple missions and be designed with an open architecture -- an approach called Modular Open System Approach (MOSA) -- that uses a network avionics architecture technology to enable rapid manufacturing, integration, and test, says Rick Hayner, MSV program manager at Northrop Grumman.
The SRR and future tests and reviews are all part of a contract let by NASA Ames Research Center and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
"We're progressing toward a mission level systems requirement review which will happen in early summer," Hayner says. "At this point, we're ready to proceed with preliminary design which will culminate in a preliminary design review this fall."