HEICO Corporation Subsidiaries Supply Mission-Critical Parts for NASA’s Juno Spacecraft

Sierra Microwave Technology and 3D Plus subsidiaries designed and made parts


GEORGETOWN, Texas and BUC, France, July 06, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI.A) (NYSE:HEI) today announced that two of its Electronic Technologies Group subsidiaries designed and manufactured mission-critical flight hardware for NASA’s Juno spacecraft which entered Jupiter’s orbit this week.  Juno is the first spacecraft in history to make this remarkable achievement.

HEICO’s Georgetown, TX-based Sierra Microwave Technology provided the Transmit Protect Electronics for Juno’s telecommunications subsystem.  Sierra’s High Power X Band Isolator protected the transmitter, which must switch between several different antennae of varying gain, from damage during Juno’s entry into Jupiter’s orbit.  The telecommunications system provides X-band command uplink and engineering telemetry, as well as science data downlink, for the entire post-launch, cruise and Jupiter orbital operations.

The Company’s Buc, France-based 3D Plus subsidiary provided 4Gb SRAM memory modules on board Juno, which modules form the “heart” of the data recorder that will collect the science data and keep them safely on board until the downlink is able to send the data back to earth.

Laurans A. Mendelson, HEICO’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, along with Victor H. Mendelson, HEICO’s Co-President and Chief Executive Officer of its Electronic Technologies Group, remarked,  “We congratulate NASA, its staff, its contractors and all of those involved with yet another highly successful and history-making NASA mission.  HEICO is honored to have two outstanding companies consisting of many talented people who helped to facilitate the mission.  We further congratulate the Sierra Microwave and 3D Plus teams for their success and continuous pursuit of excellence.  We’re fortunate to have such great companies as part of HEICO.”

As explained by NASA, “Juno's principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter.  With its suite of nine science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras.  The mission also will let us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system.  As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter also can provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] manages the Juno mission for NASA.  Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.  The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.”

HEICO Corporation is engaged primarily in the design, production, servicing and distribution of products and services to certain niche segments of the aviation, defense, space, medical, telecommunications and electronics industries through its Hollywood, Florida-based Flight Support Group and its Miami, Florida-based Electronic Technologies Group.  HEICO's customers include a majority of the world's airlines and overhaul shops, as well as numerous defense and space contractors and military agencies worldwide, in addition to medical, telecommunications and electronics equipment manufacturers.  For more information about HEICO, please visit our website at http://www.heico.com


            

Contact Data