Design and Assembly of a Satellite Propulsion System in 12 Months

摘要

Design, analysis and assembly of satellite propulsion systems typically takes 15 to 24 months from initial contract award to delivery of the system. Aerojet completed the design and analysis of a medium sized satellite propulsion system in 6 months and delivered it 12 months from the date of contract award. To meet this schedule, Aerojet and the customer formed an integrated product team with senior personnel, removed artificial boundaries to the exchange of information and focused on a simple design that used only flight qualified components. Early emphasis on trade studies with input from all relevant engineering disciplines and the customer helped to quickly identify the system architecture. Small design and manufacturing improvements that allowed more activities to be completed in parallel were implemented throughout the program and cumulatively resulted in substantial schedule reductions relative to typical program execution. The delivery schedule of purchased components was a difficult challenge and set the pace of the program. This paper explores the design and manufacturing of this satellite propulsion system to identify steps that helped facilitate a compressed delivery schedule and identify opportunities to further shorten delivery schedules on subsequent systems.