• Development and qualification of an improved version of the Ball Latch Valve, which is lighter, smaller and less complex to produce and assemble
• Incorporation of two improvement features to complement the valve: a priming function to eliminate waterhammer effect and a back pressure relief element to equalize pressures if the pressure downstream of the BLV is higher than upstream (safety feature vs. possibility of ice formation on lines)
• Providing Europe with a fully European component for a latch valve as the currently “most used component” is of US origin  (Moog valve). This latch valve also has the capability of multiple actuations, should it be needed.

The original Ball Latch Valve was developed between 2004 and 2007, based on a Swagelok design, and between 2008 and 2018 gained heritage flying in missions such as SAR-Lupe, Sentinel-3 A/B, Formosat-5, Gökturk and being schedule to fly on EnMAP and Sentinel 3C/D. Nonetheless the valve lacks specific capabilities such as a back pressure relief function and was considered by some Primes to be heavy (at over 800g) and quite bulky which could also be seen on its 1st Eigen Frequency only just above 300Hz. Also, the complexity of the changes vs. the original Swagelok design needed to make the valve “Space worthy” meant that the valve is complex to produce and assemble which translates into an overall cost usually above 30k€