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INVAP is the prime contractor for
CONAE, the Argentine Space Agency,
for all large Argentine Space projects, such as satellites, payloads
and ground segment facilities. INVAP
is the only company in Argentina qualified under
NASA and ISO 9001 standards
for the undertaking of such space projects, and is the only company
in Latin America with full life cycle capabilities,
from design and development through mission control and operation
support.
A joint Argentine - American collaboration program begun in the
early 90's, between CONAE and NASA,
the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The Scientific Applications Satellites SAC
series were initiated under this program, the first of
which was SAC-B. Given its track
record and experience in the nuclear industry, with high quality,
high reliability requirements, INVAP
was singled-out by NASA review and recommended to CONAE to become
the leading space company within the Argentine industrial base.
Since then INVAP has developed an
internal space division with multiple in-house capabilities.
Other satellites of the SAC series
are SAC-C, a remote sensing mission,
which currently sends Earth images and other data to the "Teófilo
Tabanera" ground station of CONAE,
and SAC-A, a technological
demonstration satellite, which was placed in orbit by the US space
shuttle "Endeavour" and was a complete
success in its mission.
The three SAC satellites carried
a wide range of experiments, including optical remote sensing
equipment. For all these space missions, in addition to the satellite
platform, INVAP also designed and
built all optical payloads.
In all SAC cases, NASA provided
the launch while INVAP provided for
all stages of the project, from system design and engineering,
to manufacture and assembly, integration and testing. INVAP
is operating the Argentine Ground Stations for mission control
and reception of remote sensing satellite data, jointly with CONAE.
Argentina possesses in INVAP an
autonomous capability for the design, construction, testing and
operation of medium size satellites.
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