[Satellite TODAY 09-30-10] Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems’ deployed its Universal Interface Electronics (UIE) unit to the U.S. Navy’s Tactical Satellites (TacSat)-4 mission, which launched earlier this week, SNC announced Sept. 28.

   The UIE unit is a prototype of SNC’s distributed, modular avionics architecture developed as part of the U.S. Department of Defense plug-and-play responsive satellite initiative. The primary purpose of the UIE device is to enable rapid interfacing of various devices with differing interface protocols via firmware reprogramming. SNC said the unit aims to eliminate expensive and time-consuming hardware modifications and re-qualification.

   “The development and subsequent flight of the UIE on the TacSat-4 mission is important to SNC as it represents validation of the on-board processor base lined in all eighteen of SNC’s commercial Orbcomm Generation 2 satellites,” SNC’s Space Systems Vice President of Technology Jeff Summers said in a statement.