Blue Canyon Technologies to Provide CubeSats for VISORS Space Program to Study the Sun
Blue Canyon Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), has been awarded a contract to provide 6U CubeSat buses and an Engineering Development Unit for the VISORS program. This initiative, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, aims to study energy-release regions in the sun's corona. Key components will be delivered for testing before the program's launch. Blue Canyon's technology is expected to enhance scientific understanding of the sun's plasma physics. The company supports nearly 50 unique missions with over 90 spacecraft currently in production.
- Awarded contract for VISORS program, enhancing scientific research on solar corona.
- Technology expected to improve understanding of solar plasma physics.
- Production of nearly 90 spacecraft supports diverse missions.
- None.
Leading small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies LLC (“BCT” or “Blue Canyon”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), today announced the company was selected to provide a pair of 6U CubeSat buses and an Engineering Development Unit for the Virtual Super-resolution Optics with Reconfigurable Swarms, or VISORS, program, a space mission sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
The objective of the VISORS program is to detect and study the fundamental energy-release regions in the sun’s corona.
“Blue Canyon Technologies is providing key components in a program that will, for the first time, reveal individual energy-release sites in the solar corona to test theories of coronal heating,” said George Stafford, co-founder and CEO of Blue Canyon Technologies. “Our company's technology will enable the VISORS program to help scientists understand the sun’s plasma physics and refine models for nanoflares and corona composition."
Under the contract awarded by the University of Illinois, BCT will also be providing an Engineering Development Unit that will allow the program's instrument team to test hardware well in advance of the VISORS launch. Delivery of the buses to Georgia Tech for instrument integration is scheduled for June and September 2022.
In addition to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a number of academic institutions are involved including the Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Washington State University, Ohio State University, Purdue University, the University of California San Diego, New Mexico State University, Montana State University, and the University of Colorado.
About Blue Canyon Technologies
Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, offers a diverse portfolio of innovative, reliable and affordable spacecraft that enable a broad range of missions and technological advancements for the new space economy, reducing the barriers of space entry. BCT is currently supporting nearly 50 unique missions with over 90 spacecraft, all in production at their newly developed 80,000-square-foot facility in Lafayette, Colorado.
BCT has supported missions for the U.S. Air Force, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and provided the Attitude Control Systems for the first interplanetary CubeSats, which successfully traveled to Mars. The company has been recognized with awards from Inc. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies, the 2020 Best in Biz Award and the 2020 Tibbetts Award.
For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com. You can follow the company on Instagram here or Twitter here.
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