Space Antennas And Deployables
News
TENDEG 3m Aperture Perimeter Truss Reflector (PTR) Achieves TRL 6
December 27, 2023
Tendeg's 3m Perimeter Truss Reflector Successfully Deploys After Stowed Vibration and Thermal Cycle Environmental Testing
LOUISVILLE, Colo. – December 27, 2023 – Tendeg is pleased to announce that their newest antenna has achieved Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6. The new antenna is a 3m aperture perimeter truss reflector (PTR) with an incorporated gold wire reflective mesh.
The test unit is an offset fed configuration with a similar optical prescription to Tendeg’s flight heritage KaTENna architecture. It is designed to operate up to X-band frequencies.
This PTR has done over 30 deployments and demonstrated repeatability over each deployment. The pre-environmental and post-environmental surface measurements were identical. The PTR was vibrated in each axis for both sine and random vibration. The vibration levels were enveloped by GEVS and SpaceX Falcon 9 Rideshare levels. The PTR was then thermal cycled 6 times from -50 to 70 deg C.
After environments, the PTR then successfully deployed its clamp band, then secondary release which resulted in a bloomed reflector and then a motorized truss deployment on a gravity offloader. After full deployment, the surface was scanned and compared to previous deployments and verified to meet mission requirements. The images below show the test configuration, deployment and surface scan with an RF simulation.
This specific unit was purchased by a U.S. DoD center for an upcoming proof of concept flight. Tendeg is also building a 3m Ka-band communications antenna for GEO and a 4m C-band SAR antenna for LEO. Studies are underway for 6-10m offset apertures and a 5-7m centerfed configuration.
TENDEG Accepts $4.9 Million Colorado Incentive Tax Credit and Leases 100,000-Sq.-Ft. Expansion
October 9, 2023
Tendeg’s new 100,000 SF leased space at 1350 S. 96th St., Louisville, CO
LOUISVILLE, Colo. – Oct. 9, 2023 – Tendeg announced that it has decided to expand its operations in Louisville, Colorado and accept a $4.93 million Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit from the Colorado Economic Development Commission. This incentive is contingent upon the creation of up to 451 new jobs in Boulder County over an 8-year period.
To support this growth, Tendeg leased 100,080 sq. ft. at the recently constructed Bolder Innovation Campus in Louisville, Colorado, for their new headquarters and an advanced manufacturing facility.
Tendeg engineers and fabricates deployable antennas and precision structures for space-based satellites. Tendeg’s five antenna product lines have achieved significant traction in the space industry and they are supporting national defense, earth science, communications, radar and lunar missions. Tendeg is currently operating in two other facilities (40,000SF) in the Colorado Tech Center in Louisville. The new space will allow for continued employee growth and a state-of-the-art fabrication facility to increase throughput and efficiency.
“We are excited to announce this next phase of our growth and appreciative of the support from Governor Polis and the Colorado Economic Development Commission,” said Gregg Freebury, founder and CEO, Tendeg. “We have been fortunate to expand as quickly as we have and we take our role in the space sector seriously. We are supporting important missions for our commercial and Government customers. Having this increased capability is necessary to solidify our position as a premier satellite antenna and payload provider.”
Colorado Governor Jared Polis visits TENDEG
September 27, 2023
Colorado Governor Jared Polis with Tendeg founders Gregg Freebury (left) and Neal Beidleman view a 3-meter flight antenna that is stowed before satellite integration.
LOUISVILLE, Colo. – September 27, 2023 – Tendeg was pleased to host Governor Jared Polis. The Governor was able to meet with Tendeg’s leadership and understand Tendeg’s space and satellite business and then tour the facility. Tendeg’s Starshade (NASA Exoplanet Discovery) hardware was shared. The Governor also witnessed a demonstration of a deployable and steerable flight antenna and also viewed Tendeg’s new Perimeter Truss Reflector. Other flight hardware on display included a 3m and 1.5m deployable antenna. The Governor also saw significant infrastructure investments in the Tendeg laboratory.
Also occurring on the same day, Tendeg announced that it has decided to expand its operations in Louisville, Colorado and accept a $4.93 million Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit from the Colorado Economic Development Commission. This incentive is contingent upon the creation of up to 451 new jobs in Boulder County over an 8-year period.
Tendeg also announced that it has leased 100,080 sq. ft. at the recently constructed Bolder Innovation Campus in Louisville, Colorado, for their new headquarters and an advanced manufacturing facility.
Tendeg engineers and fabricates deployable antennas and precision structures for space-based satellites. Tendeg’s five antenna product lines have achieved significant traction in the space industry and they are supporting national defense, earth science, communications, radar and lunar missions. Tendeg is currently operating in two other facilities (40,000SF) in the Colorado Tech Center in Louisville. The new space will allow for continued employee growth and a state-of-the-art fabrication facility to increase throughput and efficiency.
“We are excited to announce this next phase of our growth and appreciative of the support from Governor Polis and the Colorado Economic Development Commission,” said Gregg Freebury, founder and CEO, Tendeg. “We have been fortunate to expand as quickly as we have and we take our role in the space sector seriously. We are supporting important missions for our commercial and Government customers. Having this increased capability is necessary to solidify our position as a premier satellite antenna and payload provider.”
Tendeg Selected by Lockheed Martin as Strategic Supplier of Deployable Antennas
April 10, 2023
Tendeg’s 3m aperture reflector with deployable boom and feed assembly is shown on a microsat class satellite bus.
Louisville, CO – Aerospace deployable antenna provider Tendeg LLC is pleased to announce it has been selected by Lockheed Martin as a strategic supplier for several of the company’s critical global security space missions.
Tendeg is an innovative manufacturer of spacecraft antennas and deployable structures with full-range aerospace engineering services, including design, analysis, prototyping and flight unit build. The company’s antennas are scalable to support missions requiring apertures that deploy from .5 meters to further than 16 meters.
Tendeg is supporting several orders with Lockheed Martin being delivered as early as this year. The two firms are also in discussions regarding how Tendeg’s unique designs could further serve our nation’s important space missions when combined with the Lockheed Martin’s versatile radio frequency (RF) payloads. These designs promise to enable the revolutionary path to larger apertures increasing spectral access and mission capability, in all orbital regimes.
“The scalability of our deployable antennas provide a wide range of mission options, and their affordability helps contribute to the low life-cycle cost goals of many government missions,” said Gregg Freebury, CEO and Principal Engineer at Tendeg. “We’re ‘right down the road’ from Lockheed Martin here in Colorado and we’re excited to be able to work closely with them on efforts to support those protecting our country.”
For more information about Tendeg and current projects, please visit www.tendeg.com.
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Tendeg point of contact: Gregg Freebury, gregg@tendeg.com
News
Tendeg and NASA JPL's Starshade Inner Disk Assembly is Showcased on the Cover of National Geographic Magazine
Feb 1, 2023
Tendeg is excited to be a partner with NASA JPL on the Starshade Technology Development Program that is showcased on the cover of the February 2023 National Geographic magazine.
A NatGeo crew led by photographer Craig Cutler was onsite at Tendeg for a week and captured some stunning images and videos of the Starshade Inner Disk System. Tendeg fabricated the 10 m deployable truss, optical shield assembly and the complex gravity compensating offloading assembly. Tendeg did the final assembly and testing demonstrating 30 micron deployment repeatability.
On the cover are Tendeg employees Seth Hill, Ryan Meschewski, JoAnna Fulton and Amanda Swain. Interior pictures show additional views of the truss. Please visit the NatGeo online site or Craig Cutler's site for additional content showing amazing animations.
📸 @craigcutlerstudio
NASA Selects Tendeg Antennas for New Mission to Study Storms, Impacts on Climate Models
Nov 5, 2021
NASA has selected a new Earth science mission that will study the behavior of tropical storms and thunderstorms, including their impacts on weather and climate models. The mission will be a collection of three SmallSats, flying in tight coordination, called Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS), and is expected to launch in 2027 as part of NASA’s Earth Venture Program.
Tendeg is providing the Integrated Payload Structure and the deployable Ka-band 1.6m reflector that is part of the Dynamic Atmospheric Radar instrument.
NASA JPL RainCube Successfully Deployed
The NASA/JPL KaPDA antenna was successfully deployed and operated in space for the first time recently on the RainCube mission! Tendeg is the exclusive licensee of KaPDA. On this radar mission, the antenna, named KaRPDA for Ka-band Radar Parabolic Deployable Antenna, was deployed on 7/28/2018 at 23:47:50 UTC. It successfully performed at mission parameters, identifying atmospheric water vapor.
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Tendeg antennas made the cover of the March 2018 Small Satellites special issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE. The center and left antennas are Tendeg products.
In December 2017 Tendeg succesfully tested their 1 meter RainCube Follow On mission antenna in the JPL Near Field Chamber, demonstrating 49.2 dB gain at 36 GHz (Ka-band) performance.
