CTA Incorporated News Release

For immediate release

Contact:  Dave Johnson, 301/816-1477


CTA's REX-II Is Successfully Launched and Tested

March 13, 1996 - The Radiation Experiment Satellite (REX-II), CTA 
Space Systems' 26th spacecraft, is performing well on orbit after its 
successful March 8 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, company 
president George Sebestyen announced.  REX-II, built for the Air Force 
Space Test Program and the Air Force Rome Laboratory, was designed to 
test the effects of atmospheric anomalies on radio transmissions.  It 
is the first satellite to use Global Positioning System (GPS) 
technology for attitude determination and control.

REX-II was produced by CTA in only 16 months and originally was 
scheduled for launch on a standard Pegasus vehicle.  With the 
satellite available, the Air Force volunteered the REX-II mission to 
support the Pegasus XL return-to-flight effort.  Since the satellite's 
completion in September 1995, it had been in active storage and CTA 
technicians tested it extensively through a series of simulated 
missions.

The satellite, which is controlled from CTA's McLean, Virginia Ground 
Control Center, achieved a stable attitude ahead of schedule, 
Sebestyen said.  Communication was established and on-orbit testing 
began with the spacecraft's first pass over Washington, DC.  
Technicians verified that the satellite's automatic attitude control 
system was functioning properly and later successfully commanded final 
stabilization maneuvers.  It is now orbiting in a 440 nautical mile 
polar inclination.  REX-II is scheduled to be turned over to the Air 
Force after on-orbit testing is successfully completed.

"We are very happy that REX-II is working well as designed.  After a 
series of launch vehicle failures, the success of this mission comes 
as a major boost to the morale of our company and that of the whole 
industry," Sebestyen said.

CTA Space Systems, a division of CTA Incorporated, designs, builds, 
and operates spacecraft and ground stations for a variety of Defense 
Department, NASA, and commercial customers.  CTA currently is building 
Clark, a 3-meter panchromatic imaging satellite, under NASA's Small 
Satellite Technology Initiative.  The division also is building two 
commercial imaging satellites for EarthWatch, MightySat-1 for the Air 
Force Phillips Laboratory, the Space Test Experiments Platform (STEP) 
Mission 4 Spacecraft Bus, and a geostationary direct broadcast 
satellite for digital TV broadcasting.

CTA Incorporated specializes in the application of high-performance, 
low-cost microelectronics and advanced systems technologies to produce 
highly capable, low-cost space and ground systems.  Formed in 1979, 
CTA is now a company of more than 1,500 employees with 1995 revenues 
of more than $200 million.