TAI's News & Blog

SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral on 12/5/18. Image credit: wuft.org

SpaceX Launches the GPS III SV01 Satellite on December 23, 2018.

Pictured: A5-501 AlTS® with Al 6061 Fittings and Al 1100 0.001" Foils (December 2018)

...It sure has been busy at TAI this year--and only getting busier as we approach 2019.  In another first, MIT Lincoln Laboratory procured sets of our standard P5-506 and G5-502 Copper and Graphite Fiber Thermal Straps (CuTS® & GFTS®), for an evaluation program to determine the best strap types for future spaceflight programs.

I am happy to announce that TAI recently delivered several spaceflight model (FM) Graphite Fiber Thermal Straps (GFTS®) to Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), to be incorporated on instruments destined for NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer  (IXPE) mission, scheduled for launch in 2021. 

Artist Rendition of OSIRIS-REx Approach to Bennu. Photo Credit: NASA

In a year of records and firsts, I am happy to announce yet another from the TAI team: we have just completed—and now offer the industry's first—gold-plated, swaged OFHC copper foil thermal strap (CuFS).  The large prototype unit (pictured below), was manufactured by TAI for an R&D program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Illinois.

The TAI team is thrilled to announce we have completed a development program for NASA, which focused on providing a passive cooling solution with the lowest allowable stiffness requirement ever applied to a thermal strap/flexible thermal link, in NASA's history.

TAI is now happy to offer optional Al 6061 end fittings for all of our custom and standard model Copper Thermal Strap (CuTS®) products.  This new customization offering is in response to customer demand, and a thermal strap program completed earlier this month.