TacSat-3

Last updated

TacSat-3
TacSat-3 (transparent).png
Artist's rendering of TacSat-3 imaging satellite
NamesJWS-D2
Mission type Technology, Communications
Operator Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
COSPAR ID 2009-028A OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
SATCAT no. 35001
Mission duration2.5 years (planned)
3 years (achieved)
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftTacSat-3
Bus ATK
Manufacturer Raytheon
Launch mass400 kg (880 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date19 May 2009, 23:55 UTC
Rocket Minotaur I # 8
Launch site MARS, Wallops Island, LP-0B
Contractor Orbital Sciences Corporation
End of mission
Last contact15 February 2012
Decay date30 April 2012
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric orbit [1]
Regime Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude 432 km (268 mi)
Apogee altitude 467 km (290 mi)
Inclination 40.40°
Period 93.57 minutes
TacSat-3 final logo (090416-F-5147E-001).png
TacSat-3 patch mission
←  TacSat-2
TacSat-4  →
 

TacSat-3 is the second in a series of U.S. military experimental technology and communication satellites. It was assembled in an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. [2] The TacSat satellites are all designed to demonstrate the ability to provide real-time data collected from space to combatant commanders in the field.

Contents

TacSat-3 includes three distinct payloads: [3]

Design

TacSat-3 bus during integration Tacsat-3 080717-F-2907C-105.jpg
TacSat-3 bus during integration

TacSat-3 uses a standard satellite bus developed and provided by ATK.

The payload consists of a two mirror Ritchey–Chrétien telescope plus correction optics, with a focus device incorporated in the secondary mirror unit, and with a slit Offner spectrometer. The spectrometer uses the ARTEMIS hyperspectral imaging sensor (HSI), which is a single HgCdTe Focal Plane Array covering the entire V/NIR/SWIR spectrum from 400 nm to 2500 nm at a uniform resolution of 5 nm. ARTEMIS measures first the spectral information at each point on the ground in 400 spectral channels. HSI data cubes obtained by ARTEMIS are then handled by a reprogrammable digital signal processor with 16 gigabit data storage capability to generate on-board products and for in-theater downlink. [4] [5] TacSat-3's main focus is land-based HSI. [6] According to Peter Wegner from the Operationally Responsive Space Office, TacSat-3 cost US$90 million. [7]

Launch

Launch of TacSat-3 TacSat3 launch 090518-F-9999B-001.jpg
Launch of TacSat-3

In January 2009, the Air Force announced that a malfunctioning component has postponed the launch date on its Minotaur launch vehicle. [8] However, in March 2009 it was announced that the component issues had been resolved and a launch date was set for 5 May 2009. [9] The 5 May 2009 launch attempt was scrubbed and a new launch date was set for 19 May 2009, with a backup date of 20 May 2009. The launch occurred successfully at 23:55 UTC on 19 May 2009, 20 minutes into a launch window running from 23:35 to 03:30 UTC each night. [10]

The first attempt to launch TacSat-3 was made on 6 May 2009, during a window running from 00:00-03:00 UTC. However, due to thunderstorms and very low ceilings which prevented the surveillance plane from taking off, this launch attempt was scrubbed and the next attempt was scheduled for 8 May 2009 during the same window. The 8 May 2009 attempt was also scrubbed due to thunderstorms and heavy rain, which once again, prevented the surveillance plane from being able to take off. Another attempt was scheduled for the next day on 9 May 2009, again with the same window. Although the weather cooperated better for the 9 May 2009 attempt, a launch support equipment problem caused a delay of approximately three hours past the scheduled launch time. This problem was resolved and the countdown resumed. However, with 2 minutes and 16 seconds left on the countdown clock, an unexpected hold was called. [11] Several minutes later, this launch attempt was also scrubbed due to low electrical voltage on the AGC of the Flight Termination System. A new launch date was set for 19 May 2009 with 20 May 2009 as a backup date.

The spacecraft was successfully launched at 23:55 UTC on 19 May 2009 after a small delay to remove off shore boaters from the exclusion area.

Mission

ARTEMIS image of the National Mall 100618-F-9999X-001.jpg
ARTEMIS image of the National Mall

TacSat-3 achieved a HSI ground resolution of 4 meters, which enabled it to detect and identify tactical targets. [12] After a successful completion of a one-year experimental phase, and the acquisition of more than 2100 images, TacSat-3 was handed over to the Air Force in June 2010 as a full-time operational asset. It is the first hyperspectral satellite with the ability to provide reconnaissance within 10 minutes after passing overhead. Field commanders using tactical radio equipment, such as the AN/PRC-117F Multiband Manpack Radio, can directly communicate with the satellite in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band. [13] [14] [15] TacSat-3/ARTEMIS observations of the National Mall and the Kilauea Volcano to support technical validation of the sensor have been released in June 2010. The released images comprise three of the more than 400 spectral bands. [16]

TacSat-3 completed operations on 15 February 2012. On 30 April 2012, following the decay of its orbit, TacSat-3 reentered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up. [17] [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air Force Research Laboratory</span> Scientific research organization for the US Air Force and US Space Force

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct-energy based aerospace warfighting technologies, planning and executing the Air Force science and technology program, and providing warfighting capabilities to United States air, space, and cyberspace forces. It controls the entire Air Force science and technology research budget which was $2.4 billion in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defense Support Program</span> US infrared satellite early warning system

The Defense Support Program (DSP) is a program of the United States Space Force that operated the reconnaissance satellites which form the principal component of the Satellite Early Warning System used by the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schriever Space Force Base</span> U.S. Space Force base near Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States

Schriever Space Force Base, previously Schriever Air Force Base, Falcon Air Force Base, and Falcon Air Force Station, is a base of the United States Space Force located approximately 10 mi (16 km) east of Peterson Space Force Base near Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">THEMIS</span> NASA satellite of the Explorer program

Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission began in February 2007 as a constellation of five NASA satellites to study energy releases from Earth's magnetosphere known as substorms, magnetic phenomena that intensify auroras near Earth's poles. The name of the mission is an acronym alluding to the Titan Themis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TacSat-2</span> US military satellite

TacSat-2 is the first in a series of U.S. military experimental technology and communication satellites.TacSat-2 (also known as JWS-D1 was an experimental satellite built by the USAF's Air Force Research Laboratory with an operational life expected to be not more than one year as part of the "Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration" program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TacSat-1</span>

TacSat-1 was an experimental satellite built by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) on behalf of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Force Transformation (OFT). It was the planned payload of the sixth launch of the SpaceX Falcon 1. It was however never launched into space. The second satellite in the series, TacSat-2, launched before TacSat-1 and this led to the cancellation of TacSat-1's launch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GPS satellite blocks</span> Generations of US navigation satellites

GPS satellite blocks are the various production generations of the Global Positioning System (GPS) used for satellite navigation. The first satellite in the system, Navstar 1, was launched on 22 February 1978. The GPS satellite constellation is operated by the 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS) of Space Delta 8, United States Space Force.

The Operationally Responsive Space Office is a joint initiative of several agencies within the United States Department of Defense (DoD). The "stand up" of the office took place 21 May 2007 at Kirtland Air Force Base. The first director of the ORS Office was Col. Kevin McLaughlin, who was also dual-hatted as commander of the Space Development and Test Wing located at Kirtland. The ORS Office focuses on providing quick-response tactical space-based capabilities to the warfighter utilizing smaller satellites, such as the Tactical Satellite Program and smaller launch vehicles.

The Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) system is a planned United States Space Force constellation of satellites and supporting ground infrastructure that will improve the ability of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to detect and track space objects in orbit around the Earth. The primary SBSS contractor, Boeing, characterizes some orbiting space objects as, "Potential future threats to the United States' space assets".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minotaur IV</span> Space launch vehicle

Minotaur IV, also known as Peacekeeper SLV and OSP-2 PK is an active expendable launch system derived from the LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM. It is operated by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, and made its maiden flight on 22 April 2010, carrying the HTV-2a Hypersonic Test Vehicle. The first orbital launch occurred on 26 September 2010 with the SBSS satellite for the United States Air Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TacSat-4</span>

TacSat-4 is the third in a series of U.S. military experimental technology and communication satellites. The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the program manager. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored the development of the payload and funded the first year of operations. The Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) funded the standardized spacecraft bus and the Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS) funded the launch that will be performed by the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tactical Satellite Program</span> US Air Force series of satellites

During the second half of 2002, the Naval Research Laboratory studied the tactical application of space assets. Relatively new technologies and processes in the areas of microsatellites, affordable and quick-response launch vehicles, and the classified SIPRNet made tactical use of space assets possible in the relatively near term. The DoD's Office of Force Transformation (OFT) agreed with the core findings of the study and decided to start an Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Initiative consisting of a series of experiments. TacSat-1 is the first experiment in this OFT initiative. The TacSat-1 experiment received go-ahead on 7 May 2003.

AeroCube-3 is a single-unit CubeSat which was built and is being operated by The Aerospace Corporation, at El Segundo, California. It is the third AeroCube picosatellite, following on from AeroCube-1, which was lost in a launch failure in 2006, and AeroCube-2 which was successfully launched in 2007 but failed immediately after launch. Compared to its predecessors it contains several improvements in its infrastructure, including a redesigned power system, replacing the older system which was responsible for the loss of AeroCube-2. Its development was funded by the United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

HawkSat-1 was a single-unit CubeSat which was built and is being operated by the Hawk Institute for Space Sciences (HISS), Pocomoke City, Maryland. It is based on a Pumpkin Inc. CubeSat kit, and carries a technology demonstration payload, primarily as a proof of concept mission, testing command, data and power subsystems, as well as solar panels and communications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GOES 13</span> U.S. Space Force weather satellite

EWS-G1 is a weather satellite of the U.S. Space Force, formerly GOES-13 and part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system. On 14 April 2010, GOES-13 became the operational weather satellite for GOES-East. It was replaced by GOES-16 on 18 December 2017 and on 8 January 2018 its instruments were shut off and it began its three-week drift to an on-orbit storage location at 60.0° West longitude, arriving on 31 January 2018. It remained there as a backup satellite in case one of the operational GOES satellites had a problem until early July 2019, when it started to drift westward and was being transferred to the U.S. Air Force, and then the U.S. Space Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lunar Flashlight</span> Lunar orbiter by NASA

Lunar Flashlight was a low-cost CubeSat lunar orbiter mission to explore, locate, and estimate size and composition of water ice deposits on the Moon for future exploitation by robots or humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lunar IceCube</span> Nanosatellite launched in 2022

Lunar IceCube is a NASA nanosatellite orbiter mission that was intended to prospect, locate, and estimate amount and composition of water ice deposits on the Moon for future exploitation. It was launched as a secondary payload mission on Artemis 1, the first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), on 16 November 2022. As of February 2023 it's unknown whether NASA team has contact with satellite or not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space Base Delta 2</span> Buckley installation

Space Base Delta 2 is a garrison delta in the United States Space Force. It is responsible for providing installation support functions for the resident air operations, space-based missile warning capabilities, space surveillance operations, and space communications missions at Buckley Space Force Base, Cape Cod Space Force Station, Cavalier Space Force Station, and Clear Space Force Station. It also provides airmen and guardians that deploy and are deployed in-place, to accomplish warfighting missions globally.

References

  1. ↑ "Satellite Catalog". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  2. ↑ "On-demand intel satellite sensor delivered". United Press International. 12 June 2007. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011.
  3. ↑ Kleiman, Michael P. (30 March 2006). "Responsive, flexible, and affordable satellite enhances support to warfighter". afrl.af.mil. Air Force Research Laboratory. Archived from the original on 25 July 2006.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  4. ↑ Kleiman, Michael P. (17 April 2009). "TacSat-3 to demonstrate rapid delivery of imagery". aF.mil. 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 19 April 2009. Alt URL
  5. ↑ Starr, William J. Jr. (12 March 2010). Analysis of Slewing and Attitude Determination Requirements for CTEx (PDF) (Thesis). Air Force Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2010.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  6. ↑ Davis, Thomas M.; Straight, Stanley D. (2006). Development of the Tactical Satellite 3 for Responsive Space Missions (PDF). 4th Responsive Space Conference, Los Angeles, April 24–27, 2006. ResponsiveSpace.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  7. ↑ Brinton, Turner (30 August 2010). "Rapidly Delivered Systems". SpaceNews. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  8. ↑ Kleiman, Michael P. (13 January 2009). "Malfunctioning Component Delays Satellite Launch". afmc.af.mil. 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2013.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  9. ↑ Kleiman, Michael P. (25 March 2009). "Launch date established for Tactical Satellite-3". afmc.af.mil. 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  10. ↑ "TacSat-3 Information". NASA. 20 May 2009. Retrieved 2 September 2013.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  11. ↑ "NASA Wallops". twitter.com. 8 May 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
  12. ↑ Payton, Gary (2010). Future of Air Force Space. AIAA New Horizons Forum, January 6, 2010. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010.
  13. ↑ Page, Lewis (11 June 2010). "New prototype U.S. spy satellite rushed into active use". The Register. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  14. ↑ Brewin, Bob (22 January 2008). "Air Force working on cheaper plug-and-play satellites". Government Executive. Retrieved 13 June 2010.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  15. ↑ Kleiman, Michael P. (10 June 2010). "Tactical Satellite-3 completes groundbreaking experimental mission". afmc.af.mil. 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  16. ↑ Kleiman, Michael P. (18 June 2010). "Two image collects released by Tactical Satellite-3 demonstration program". wpafb.af.mil. 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2013.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  17. ↑ "Space Command TacSat-3 burns up in atmosphere". vandenberg.af.mil. Air Force Space Command Public Affairs. 2 May 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  18. ↑ "Tacsat-3". Aerospace.org. 30 April 2012. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.