DTL: NASA, BAE Develop Networking Protocol for Spacecraft
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, Washington, DC) and aerospace manufacturer BAE Systems (Rockville, MD) have developed a standard communications protocol for spacecraft electronics.
Called SpaceWire, the new standard is based on a communications protocol developed in 1999 by the European Space Agency. SpaceWire answers a long-standing spaceflight problem: No standard high-speed communications protocol existed for flight electronics. As a result, electronic equipment onboard spacecraft, such as processing units and computers, were custom-made on a project-by-project basis, resulting in long development times, high costs and elevated project risk.