Over a month ago, Japan's HTV3 cargo carrier launched atop a Japanese H-II rocket delivering an innovative software-defined radio experiment to the International Space Station (ISS). This new ISS facility, known as the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed, utilizes Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems' developed antenna pointing system. Initial reports indicate the system is operating as designed.

The NASA SCaN Program is responsible for providing communications and navigation services to space flight missions throughout the solar system.

Using a new generation of Software Defined Radios, the SCaN Testbed, developed by the NASA Glenn Research Center, will perform a variety of communications, networking and navigation experiments in the realistic environment of space.

These experiments will advance space communication technologies in support of future NASA missions and other U.S. space endeavors.

SNC supplied the integrated antenna pointing system, which incorporates the SNC open-loop, microstepping technology. This system has also successfully flown on Deep Impact, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Suomi NPP and several commercial remote sensing platforms.

"This is another excellent example of a successful collaborative program between SNC and NASA," said Matt Johnson, space technologies director of programs for SNC's Space Systems.