Frequency Electronics'  communications gear in orbit around Mars

Workers at Frequency Electronics Inc., whose communications gear is in orbit around Mars, heaved “sighs of relief” when the InSight robotic lander touched down on the Red Planet Monday.

“We were watching it every second,” president and chief executive Stanton Sloane said of the company’s roughly 150 employees at its Uniondale headquarters.

Sloane said the company’s oscillators are in a satellite circling Mars and are available to provide relay communications to InSight.

He said it was unclear if NASA officials were communicating with InSight via a direct link or through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars orbit in March 2006.

Another Long Island company, Plainview-based Aeroflex Holding Corp., provided motors that drove the wheels, antenna and robotic arm joints of NASA’s rover Curiosity, which landed on Mars in November 2011.

Aeroflex was acquired by British aerospace company Cobham PLC for $1.46 billion in September 2014.

In 2015, Cobham’s Aeroflex unit was selected to provide motors to propel wheels and move other parts on a Mars rover in 2020, according to a news release from the company.

The timing and frequency measurement devices of Frequency Electronics are used for communications and navigation.

Its equipment also has been used in the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager Spacecraft.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.