Calian to supply NASA with third high-performance antenna to measure the Earth's geometry

Calian® Group Ltd., a diverse products and services company providing innovative advanced technologies in communications, learning, cybersecurity and healthcare, is pleased to announce that NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has once again entrusted Calian to provide a third high-performance antenna for NASA’s Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Global Observing System (VGOS).

This 12m high-performance Calian antenna will be used to support the NASA Space Geodesy Project that works to maintain our global geodetic infrastructure of several networks and individual ground stations, including the NASA VGOS network of antennas. VLBI is one of the space geodetic techniques used in geodesy, the science of accurately measuring and understanding the Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravity field, as well as the changes of these properties over time.

NASA’s VGOS program demands the highest quality precision VLBI antennas. Calian is proud of our sustained technical antenna advancements to meet NASA’s exacting requirements. Calian antennas’ ultra-strong design minimizes thermal, wind and gravity load distortion, providing exceptional performance in all frequency bands. They also allow for state-of-the-art tracking, pointing accuracy and reference point stability. These features are the Calian standard foundation for all antenna lines supporting the space, commercial and defence industries.

“We are very pleased about our continued relationship with NASA,” says Mohamed Saad, President of InterTronic, a Calian Company. “The InterTronic and NASA-VLBI teams have collaborated in developing an innovative capability that is vital to the VGOS network for almost a decade now.”

Data from the VLBI antennas will be used by NASA to determine the antenna locations on the Earth, the celestial positions in the sky and Earth's orientation in space. The antenna networks can uncover critical information not only about space, but also about our Earth. The VLBI antennas can be used to measure the Earth's orientation in space, from which geoscientists then study such phenomena as our atmosphere, ocean tides and currents, and the elastic response of the Earth.

“The team has never backed away from a challenge and our tenacity is a key element in our success,” says Patrick Thera, President of Advanced Technologies, Calian. “The world-class technical and production capabilities of InterTronic used to meet the exacting requirements at NASA will serve us well in our other markets, including our cost-effective commercial antenna solutions.”

Calian Acquisition of InterTronic

Calian acquired InterTronic, a leading high-performance antenna solutions provider, in 2021. The state-of-the-art, high-precision antenna solutions include high-accuracy, high-speed motion systems used by military, scientific and commercial customers. Applications of InterTronic, a Calian company, include radio astronomy, radar, electronic warfare, deep space and satellite communications solutions.