Concept Evolution and Hardware Development The technology currently being employed in the Space Station Freedom solar array was the result of a large number of contributing efforts from three NASA Centers and the in-house efforts of Applied Solar, Spectrolab, Able Engineering, Dupont, and Lockheed. The contributing contract efforts and the major development milestones are shown in Fig. 3, starting with the Space Station Solar Array Technology Development previously discussed. After this effort was concluded with a successful ground demonstration, the Marshall Space Flight Center initiated a long-term program which was to culminate 12 years later in the first flight demonstration of this technology in August of 1984 on Space Shuttle. Early emphasis in the MSFC projects was on the printed circuit substrate panel design and fabrication, which had received only minor effort on the previous contract. The main thrust of these programs was the development of welding techniques as well as associated inspection and repair methodology. These programs also included the building and temperature cycle testing of sample panel assemblies. They established the foundation for the process development which culminated in 1982 in a proven weld process with long-time temperature cycle life being demonstrated by test both at
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