US-based mission and system solutions company Millennium Space Systems has completed the development of the ALTAIR satellite, a pre-production pathfinder spacecraft.

The satellite has been designed to demonstrate advanced avionics, guidance and control, additive manufacturing, power systems, RF communications and onboard processing technologies.

The company said that its ALTAIR pathfinder will be launched on an International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission from Cape Canaveral next March.

“ALTAIR Pathfinder represents the company's continuing commitment to its national security space and Nasa customers."

The launch services will be provided by NanoRacks, located in Houston near Nasa's Johnson Space Center.  

Millennium Space Systems chief satellite engineer Jimmy Downs said: “ALTAIR Pathfinder represents the company's continuing commitment to its national security space and Nasa customers through our continual IR&D investments targeted at de-risking our mainline customer missions.

“It also exemplifies the agility and dependability of our people, products and processes to develop and deliver disruptive, highly capable space systems as ALTAIR Pathfinder took less than 12 months from program inception to final ship date.

“Special thanks go to our NanoRacks launch provider; they've been nothing short of being responsive and helpful every step of the way since we signed the launch services agreement earlier this year.”

Once onboard the ISS, ALTAIR Pathfinder will be released by US astronauts within 30 to 60 days.

ALTAIR Pathfinder was designed and developed to demonstrate next-generation hardware and software technologies to realise new mission capabilities.

Most of the technologies successfully transitioned from the company's work for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the SeeMe Programme.

Image: Millennium Space Systems completed the development of ALTAIR satellite. Photo courtesy of Millennium Space Systems.