Spacedev‘s Starsys division has been awarded two contracts from the U.S. Air Force to continue the development of deployable boom structures for satellites, Spacedev announced April 4.

Deployable booms are mechanical systems that unfold from a spacecraft to form large stable structures used to position instruments and sensors. The contracts from the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate will focus on the design and development of flight experiments to validate deployable space structures using several unique boom architectures.

The awards, valued at a combined $2.5 million, are Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research contracts that are the result of work Starsys completed during Phase 1 of the program.