Pixelink Cameras Find Home on NASA Orion Spacecraft

Camera developer Pixelink has been chosen to supply camera technology to NASA in conjunction with systems engineering company Deep Space Systems Inc.

Pixelink’s industrial camera technology will be used in three locations on the NASA Orion spacecraft project to capture imagery of launch and reentry events, including heat shield inspection. The Orion spacecraft will venture thousands of miles beyond the moon during Exploration Mission-1, its first mission atop NASA's Space Launch System rocket. The American interplanetary spacecraft is intended to carry a crew of four astronauts to destinations at or beyond low Earth orbit. Orion is intended to facilitate human exploration of asteroids and of Mars and to retrieve crew or supplies from the International Space Station if needed

“The Pixelink camera technology provided the best solution for the demanding and rigid performance specifications that the Orion project demanded,” said Stephen Bailey, president and CEO of Deep Space Systems. “These cameras image the Earth and the moon in order for the spacecraft to independently calculate its position and velocity in cislunar space.”

Deep Space Systems will repackage, ruggedize, and test the Pixelink cameras to ensure that each unit withstands the extreme environmental conditions of spaceflight, such as vibration, temperature variances, radiation, dynamics, and vacuum pressure.

“This is critical for crew members on board when adjusting their entry flight path angle for return to Earth under loss of communication and/or ground-based navigation conditions,” said Paul Saunders, president of Pixelink. “We are committed to providing high-quality, durable products. Winning this contract is further testament we are doing just that. We are proud to deliver a dependable application solution to Deep Space Systems and NASA, contributing to the success of Orion, America's next human exploration spacecraft.”

Pixelink is a manufacturer of industrial and life science cameras for machine vision, medical imaging, biometrics, and microscopy applications. Deep Space Systems is a systems engineering company that supports the design, development, integration, testing, and operations of science and exploration spacecraft.