ROANOKE, VA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Luna Innovations' (NASDAQ:LUNA) multi-year program with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) passed a major development milestone last week with the announcement from MDA Director Lieutenant General Henry "Trey" Obering of the successful technology-demonstration flight test from the NASA Wallops Flights Facility, VA. This exercise, identified as the Next Generation Sensor Producibility flight test (NGSP-01), occurred on June 26, 2008 at 3:57 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and successfully demonstrated the performance of emerging sensor technologies, materials, and designs that offer improvements for next-generation missile defense interceptors, or "kill vehicles".
Kill vehicles are designed to intercept incoming ballistic missile warheads outside the earth's atmosphere and destroy them by means of high speed collision. Luna provided low cost sensor and data communications electronics for use in this test of multiple elements of next-generation kill vehicles for ballistic missile defense. Currently, kill vehicles are expensive to design and manufacture due to the many customized components required for a particular mission to accommodate different sensors and non-standard subsystem interfaces. Luna's sensor electronics and data communications could substantially reduce integration and development costs.
During the exercise, a Black Brant XI sounding rocket carried a payload consisting of multiple optical and infrared sensors, along with various objects. Upon reaching the desired altitude in the exo-atmosphere, the objects were ejected to present a viewing scene for the sensors under test.
Data collected during NGSP-01 will undergo thorough analysis and be evaluated for use in the development of future missile defense interceptor kill vehicles. The NGSP-01 experiment was not a weapon system exercise.
About Luna Innovations
Luna Innovations Inc. develops and manufactures new-generation products for the healthcare, telecommunications, energy and defense markets. Our products are used to measure, monitor, protect and improve critical processes in the markets we serve. Through its disciplined commercialization business model, Luna has become a recognized leader in transitioning science to solutions. Luna is headquartered in Roanoke, VA.