THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., 18 June 2012. Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., Teledyne Technologies Inc.’s (NYSE:TDY) subsidiary in Huntsville, Ala., entered into an agreement with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials whereby the company’s new commercial space-based digital imaging business will develop the Multi-User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES) platform. Under the terms of the agreement, Teledyne will operate, maintain, and sustain the MUSES and provide services to hosted instruments.
MUSES will host up to four earth-imaging instruments, such as high-resolution digital cameras, simultaneously and provides the ability to change, upgrade, and robotically service those instruments. Teledyne expects to provide the first commercial imaging system on board the facility. MUSES will help expand the research capability and commercial utilization of the International Space Station.
The MUSES design is based on a flight-releasable attachment mechanism (FRAM), a universal mounting platform that Teledyne Brown has manufactured for more than a decade. Teledyne Brown is finalizing the design of MUSES and will fabricate, assemble, test, integrate, and qualify the platform for delivery in late 2014 to NASA. Launch of the MUSES system is scheduled to occur in early 2015.