SpaceDev announced its subsidiary, Starsys, Inc., has been awarded a second order for the solar array rotational drive assemblies and drive control electronics for the DigitalGlobe Worldview-2 satellite program from Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation. This award continues Starsys’ role with the WorldView satellite program, starting in 2006, Starsys delivered the flight solar array and rotational drive and control electronics for the WorldView-1 mission.

The Starsys Quiet Array (QuAD) Micro-Stepping motion control technology will be used on the Ball Aerospace BCP 2000 platform.  This will articulate each of the two solar arrays and align them with the sun. The Starsys drive control electronics QuAD technology provides low disturbance, this allows spacecraft images to be snapped simultaneously with the solar arrays being pointed.

"Ball's selection of our hardware to support the next WorldView satellite reflects their confidence in the enabling technology provided by Starsys' solar array and silent drive products," said Mark Sirangelo, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of SpaceDev. "We are proud to be providing a critical subsystem for this state of the art commercial imaging spacecraft."

The WorldView-2 satellite is scheduled to be ready for launch in late 2008 and is expected to expand the capabilities of DigitalGlobe's world imaging portfolio.

For further information: www.spacedev.com