TacSat-3, GeneSat-2, PharmaSat 1, HawkSat-I, Polysat-CP6 - Minotaur - Wallops MARS - 19.05.2009 23:55

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html

May 5    Minotaur  •  TacSat 3
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, Virginia

The Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket will launch the Air Force Research Laboratory's TacSat 3 advanced technology research spacecraft. The four-stage rocket uses U.S. government-supplied Minuteman 2 motors and Pegasus rocket stages. Delayed from December, March 15, June 25, Aug. 14 and Sept. 14 and October. [March 24]

[Salo]

http://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/1853/8035/2/SSEC_SD4_ppt.pdf

[Salo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TacSat-3

Computer model of TacSat-3

Organization   AFRL
Major contractors   Raytheon
Mission type   Technology demonstrator
Satellite of   Earth
Launch date   May 5, 2009
Carrier rocket   Minotaur I
Launch site   Wallops Flight Facility
Mass   400 kg (882 lb)

[Salo]

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Malfunctioning_Component_Delays_Satellite_Launch_999.html

Malfunctioning Component Delays Satellite Launch
The satellite originated five years ago to address military requirements for responsible, flexible and affordable spacecraft operating in the cosmos.

by Michael Kleiman
377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Kirtland AFB NM (SPX) Jan 16, 2009 Air Force officials here are delaying the launch of Tactical Satellite-3 until repairs to a spacecraft avionics component, critical to the system's operational capability, are complete.

Although scheduled to launch in late January, the program team is working with the manufacturer to resolve the problem.

The Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate here administers the satellite program, known as TacSat-3. When ready, the TacSat-3 launch will occur at NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va.

"We're very disappointed in the delay, but the fix is necessary to assure the on-orbit performance of the satellite," said Thom Davis, a TacSat-3 program manager.

"Had we not discovered and corrected this problem, we would have had a potential catastrophic mission failure."


The satellite originated five years ago to address military requirements for responsible, flexible and affordable spacecraft operating in the cosmos.

It consists of three pioneering experiments: the Raytheon Company-constructed Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer hyperspectral imager; the Office of Naval Research's satellite communications package; and AFRL's space avionics experiment.

The trio of payloads will offer real-time imagery (within 10 minutes of collection), sea-based information transmitted from ocean buoys and plug-and-play avionics to support the warfighter in keeping one step ahead of the adversary.

Project partners include AFRL's Sensors Directorate, NASA, the Department of Defense's Operationally Responsive Space office, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center's Space Development and Test Wing, Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Air Force Space Command, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

[Salo]

http://www.afmc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123141387

Launch date established for Tactical Satellite-3    


Tactical Satellite-3 program logo. (Air Force graphic)

by Michael Kleiman
377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

3/25/2009 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Let the countdown begin.

Lift off for Tactical Satellite-3 has been scheduled for May 5, 2009, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Wallops Island Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.

The program recently encountered challenges with some of the spacecraft's components, but the required repairs have been made and the system has been given the green light for its year-long experimental mission.

"Our program team never gave up, and establishment of the launch date serves as a testimony to their dedication, determination and duty to making TacSat-3's mission a success," said Dr. Thomas Cooley, TacSat-3 program manager. "Obviously, the project has much to do in these next few weeks leading up to lift off, but we now have a firm end date to get on orbit and begin the fun experiment phase."

Led by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate here, the less than 880-pound satellite, originated in 2004 to address military needs for responsible, flexible, and affordable spacecraft operating in the cosmos, consists of three innovative experiments: the Raytheon Company-built Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer hyperspectral imager, the Office of Naval Research's Satellite Communications Package, and the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Avionics Experiment.

The trio of trials will provide real-time imagery (within 10 minutes of collection); sea-based information transmitted from ocean buoys; and plug-and-play avionics to advance the technology of rapid spacecraft integration and help enable the responsive space vision.

Program participants include the AFRL's Sensors Directorate, Dept. of Defense's Operationally Responsive Space office, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center's Space Development and Test Wing, Army Space and Missile Defense Command, and the Office of Naval Research.

[Salo]

http://www.kirtland.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070404-104.pdf

http://space.skyrocket.de/index_frame.htm?http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_sdat/tacsat-3.htm

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Попутные нагрузки:

http://space.skyrocket.de/index_frame.htm?http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_sdat/risat-1.htm

PharmaSat 1
HawkSat 1
CP 6
AeroCube 3

[Salo]

http://space.skyrocket.de/index_frame.htm?http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_sdat/risat-1.htm

PharmaSat 1
 


PharmaSat 1 [NASA]

PharmaSat 1 is the first mission in NASA MicroSat Free Flyer (µSat-FF) Project, a progressive, 4 mission, 5 year effort that is targeted towards developing and demonstrating autonomous nanosatellite space platforms and technologies to support multidisciplinary science investigations. The µSat-FF project is enabled by the GeneSat-1 and GeneBox projects, in which 5 Kg Nanosatellites, organized in the 3U Cubesat configuration, were flown in 2006 in both the autonomous satellite and attached payload configurations, aboard the USAF Minotaur (TacSat 2) and Bigelow Aerospace Genesis missions, respectively. The overall goal of the initial µSat-FF Mission, PharmaSat-1, is to test and validate autonomous, in-situ bioanalytical and sample management technologies to implement a Principal Investigator defined science experiment to evaluate the efficacy of an antifungal drug agent on a biological specimen.

PharmaSat will be in a low earth orbit at 40 degrees inclination. The orbit should be nearly circular with an altitude of 390 km at the start of the mission, degrading to 200km after approx 250 to 300 days, at which time it would de-orbit. The satellite is a triple CubeSat with a mass of approx 4kg.

http://microsatellitefreeflyer.arc.nasa.gov/docs/PharmaSat_1.pdf 100 КБ
http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/meetings/S07/presentations/8_McGinnis_TSGC.pdf 300 КБ

[Salo]

Информация по остальным:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/pdf/326337main_Cubesat%20backgrounder.pdf

http://www.hawkspace.org/welcome.html

[Salo]

http://www.lenta.ru/news/2009/04/29/nasa/

NASA запустит микроспутник с колонией дрожжей



Американское космическое агентство запустит на орбиту микроспутник с колонией дрожжей на борту, сообщается в пресс-релизе, опубликованном на сайте агентства. Целью аппарата, который получил наименование PharmaSat, будет изучение особенностей воздействия лекарств в невесомости. Вес спутника - около пяти килограммов, а по размерам он не превосходит батон хлеба.

Запуск намечен на 5 мая 2009 года. Планируется, что на расчетную орбиту высотой около 460 километров над поверхностью Земли спутник будет выведен ракетой Minotaur 1. Ракета-носитель отправится в космос с космодрома, расположенного в штате Вирджиния.

В рамках опыта, который будет продолжаться в течение 96 часов, исследователи будут изучать воздействие лекарственных препаратов на колонию дрожжей внутри спутника. Для этого внутренность аппарата снабжена большим количеством датчиков, а также системой видеонаблюдения. Данные со спутника будут передаваться на Землю.

По мнению специалистов, использование подобных микроспутников в будущем может служить дешевой альтернативой проведению экспериментов в невесомости на МКС.

Это далеко не первая подобная миссия NASA. Так, в 2006 году агентство запустило микроспутник GeneSat-1, передатчики которого продолжают работать до сих пор. Целью миссии было изучение генетических изменений, возникающих в бактериях кишечной палочки под воздействием условий открытого космоса.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html

May 5    Minotaur  •  TacSat 3
Launch time: 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. EDT
Launch site: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, Virginia

The Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket will launch the Air Force Research Laboratory's TacSat 3 advanced technology research spacecraft. The four-stage rocket uses U.S. government-supplied Minuteman 2 motors and Pegasus rocket stages. Delayed from December, March 15, June 25, Aug. 14 and Sept. 14 and October. [April 24]

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/tacsat3/preview.html

U.S. military's experimental tactical satellite to launch
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: May 3, 2009

A military satellite designed to demonstrate inexpensive user-friendly space technologies is being readied for launch from Virginia's Eastern Shore on Tuesday night.
    
An artist's concept of the TacSat 3 spacecraft. Credit: U.S. Air Force
 

TacSat 3 is tucked inside the pointy end of a Minotaur 1 booster, a space launcher formed by combining the two lower stages of a retired Minuteman missile and the two upper stages of the Pegasus and Taurus rockets built by Orbital Sciences Corp.

The 69-foot-tall rocket is scheduled to blast off at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The launch window extends for three hours.

It will be the third Minotaur launch since 2006 from pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Va.

Around 50 workers have spent more than a month at Wallops preparing the solid-fueled launcher and its payloads for liftoff, according to Jack Vieira, the TacSat 3 project manager at the launch site.

The Minotaur is also loaded with a small NASA biology research satellite and three tiny CubeSat payloads.

Another 400 official guests are expected to flood the Eastern Shore by launch day, Vieira said.

Officials are not working any major issues this weekend, but it has been a long road to launch for TacSat 3.

Engineers examined the Minotaur's payload fairing to make sure Tuesday's $88 million launch would not suffer the same fate as the February flight of a Taurus rocket that was brought down when its nose cone failed to jettison.

The fairing protects the payload as the rocket accelerates through the lower atmosphere. The structure separates in two halves a few minutes after launch.

"Certainly there was a reason to go look at that," said Air Force Col. Scott Handy, mission director for the launch.

As it turns out, the Minotaur fairing shares very little in common with hardware on the Taurus.

Officials exonerated the fairing's frangible rails in the Taurus failure. A similar system is used by the Minotaur 1.

"Those particular rails go along the base of the fairing as well as around the exterior so that the two fairing halves can actually separate at the time during the mission," Handy said.

Orbital and NASA, the customer for the doomed February launch, are still reviewing the Taurus mishap, but the investigators briefed the Minotaur team on their interim results to help clear TacSat 3 for launch.

"We have no reason to doubt the expected separation of the fairing as designed," Handy said.

Conceived in 2004 and originally scheduled to launch in 2007, TacSat 3 has endured several years of delays due to problems with spacecraft equipment, including the satellite's star tracker, flight software and avionics system.

The 880-pound satellite is managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. It is part of the Department of Defense's Operationally Responsive Space program, which aims to develop, test and integrate low-cost space technologies onto tactical battlefields.

"We hope to chart a fundamentally new paradigm of space support for the military," said Tom Cooley, TacSat 3 program manager.

TacSat 3 will be the second TacSat payload to launch. TacSat 2, launched from Wallops in 2006, completed more than a year of operations last year.

"The TacSat program is a stepping stone for delivering operationally relevant space capabilities to joint force commanders, all the while inserting mature technologies that support our national security interests," said Peter Wegner, director of the ORS office.

Partners in the TacSat 3 project include AFRL, ORS, the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

TacSat 3's primary instrument is a high-resolution hyperspectral imager called ARTEMIS, which stands for the Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer.

Military leaders envision instruments like ARTEMIS will eventually be fielded in operational war theaters, allowing lower-ranking tactically-minded commanders to rapidly request and receive information on enemy troops and equipment.

The instrument was built by Raytheon Co.

Precursor hyperspectral imagers have flown on airborne and satellite platforms. The Hyperion instrument was launched in 2000 aboard NASA's Earth Observing 1 remote sensing test satellite.

Hyperion was designed for scientific and civilian applications.

ARTEMIS includes about 400 spectral bands, while Hyperion can convert incoming light into 220 bands.

Hyperspectral sensors work by breaking light into its components, which allows analysts or software programs to map the chemicals or minerals in an image.

Officials are not disclosing the spatial resolution of the ARTEMIS imager, but managers said the instrument will be able detect ground features as subtle as specific types of paint.

The satellite will participate in Army exercises later this year to showcase its ability to receive commands from the battlefield, gather imagery, and downlink the results to soldiers in the field, officials said.

"When the satellite breaks the horizon, the commander is able to uplink the location that they're interested in. The satellite autonomously calculates how to make that collection with the best advantage, collects it, processes the data on board, and compares the data that's collected to spectra that the Army is interested in," Cooley said.

Programmers will load the spectra, or the signature of light reflected from objects on the ground, on the satellite's computers so they can automatically compare target information to files stored on-board.

"There is a library of spectra that are pre-loaded on the satellite. They might say, for instance, they're looking for a particular type of paint. We have the spectra of that paint on the satellite," Cooley said.

Commanders on the ground will receive raw imagery or a text message with the latitude and longitude of the object's location, according to Cooley.

TacSat 3 should be able to complete these activities in less than 10 minutes during a single pass of the satellite as it circles more than 250 miles overhead.

Military officials believe agile satellites with high-resolution imagers could provide crucial information on target detection and identification, battlefield preparation and combat damage assessments.

The exercises will help officials determine the military usefulness of highly responsive space systems, which could be implemented in large satellite constellations in the future to provide global coverage.

"We'll just basically sit back and watch how useful it was to them and what the impact was," Wegner said.

The military expects TacSat 3 will operate for at least a year.

The satellite also carries the Navy's Satellite Communications Package and an Air Force plug-and-play avionics package called the Space Avionics Experiment.

The communications payload will gather observations from sea buoys and transmit the information to a ground station to be relayed to warfighters.

"By the end of that first year, we're going to have a really good assessment of the operational utility of this kind of system," Wegner said.

The Army has long been pushing for a satellite with tactical direct-tasking capability, but TacSat 3 must prove its usefulness before the Pentagon orders an operational satellite, Cooley said.

"Our goal is that the technology will be of sufficient interest that the DOD will elect to move forward and transition this type of technology into their toolbox, but that remains to be seen," Cooley said.

[Salo]

[Salo]

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/tacsat3/update.html

Minotaur rocket set for launch from Virginia
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: May 4, 2009

Weather is the only thing standing in the way of Tuesday evening's scheduled launch of a Minotaur 1 rocket with a technology demonstration satellite for the U.S. Air Force, officials said Monday.

Forecasters are predicting a 50 percent chance weather will prohibit the 69-foot-tall rocket from blasting off between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. EDT Tuesday from Wallops Island, Va.

"There's a front that's over the top of us, so we'll get rain and low cloud ceilings off an on all day tomorrow," said Keith Koehler, spokesperson for NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, which is hosting the launch.

Koehler said iffy weather is expected through at least Thursday, but the launch team is hopeful skies will clear long enough Tuesday for the Minotaur to safely lift off.

The Minotaur 1 is carrying an 880-pound tactical research satellite called TacSat 3 and a small NASA biology laboratory named PharmaSat. Three other secondary payloads will also be launched for academic and industrial institutions.

Officials say the launch, scheduled for just a few minutes after sunset, could be visible across the mid-Atlantic region from North Carolina to New Jersey.

Engineers completed their final readiness review Saturday to close out a few minor issues before clearing the $88 million mission for launch.

"The satellite is in good shape and the rocket and the range are ready," Koehler said. "We're just waiting to see what the weather is going to do."

The Minotaur will launch from pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a privately-operated facility at Wallops that has been used for two previous space launches since 2006.

Orbital Sciences Corp., the prime contractor for the Minotaur 1 booster, is modifying a nearby launch pad to be the home of their new Taurus 2 rocket.

The Taurus 2 will begin launching a new cargo-carrying freighter to the international space station by early 2011.

During Tuesday's launch, the Minotaur 1's first stage will ignite to propel the solid-fueled rocket southeast away from the launch pad.

The stage, which will burn for about one minute, is a M55A1 motor taken from stockpiles of retired Minuteman ballistic missiles.

A Minuteman second stage will take over a minute after liftoff at an altitude of about 20 miles and a downrange distance of about 14 miles. The second stage skirt will be jettisoned a few seconds later.

After reaching an altitude of more than 75 miles in barely two minutes of flight, the Minotaur's Minuteman heritage will give way to components built for Orbital's Pegasus and Taurus rockets.

The Orion 50XL third stage motor will fire for 75 seconds to continue the push toward orbit.

The Minotaur's enlarged 61-inch-diameter titanium payload fairing will be let go during the third stage burn.

After consuming the third stage consumes its solid propellant, the rocket will coast upward for more than five minutes, soaring to nearly 300 miles above Earth to reach the mission's injection altitude.

The Orion 38 will ignite for about 69 seconds to reach a targeted orbit about 290 miles high with an inclination of 40.5 degrees.

Separation of the TacSat 3 spacecraft is scheduled for T+11 minutes, 58 seconds above the central Atlantic Ocean.

After another coast period and a collision avoidance maneuver to move itself away from TacSat 3, the fourth stage will begin releasing the flight's secondary payloads with PharmaSat at T+22 minutes, 2 seconds.

See our launch timeline for more details.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/tacsat3/timeline.html

T-00:00   Liftoff
The first stage's decommissioned Minuteman 2 M55A1 solid rocket motor ignites to begin the Minotaur 1 rocket's mission. Pitch and roll commands two seconds later will put the rocket on the proper trajectory.

T+00:37.2   Max Q
Aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle reaches its peak as the Minotaur 1 accelerates through the lower atmosphere.

T+01:01.3   Stage 1 Sep./Stage 2 Ignition
At an altitude of more than 20 miles, the rocket's first stage exhausts its supply of solid fuel and is jettisoned. The second stage's SR19 motor ignites to continue the flight toward space.

T+01:17.9   Stage 2 Skirt Jettison
The second stage's aft skirt is jettisoned at an altitude of 32 miles.

T+02:13.4   Stage 2 Separation
After a 72-second burn, the Minotaur rocket's second stage separates at an altitude of more than 75 miles as the vehicle is traveling more than 6,100 mph.

T+02:15.6   Stage 3 Ignition
Components from the Pegasus rocket program take over as the Alliant Techsystems, Inc. Orion 50XL motor begins its 75-second firing.

T+02:23.7   Fairing Jettison
The 61-inch titanium payload fairing that protected the satellites during the ride through the lower atmosphere is jettisoned as the rocket ascends into space at an altitude of 83 miles.

T+03:30.3   Stage 3 Burnout
The Orion 50XL motor completes its burn and the Minotaur 1 enters a coast period lasting more than five minutes, during which the vehicle's altitude will soar from 135 miles to about 288 miles, the missionХs orbital injection altitude.

T+08:38.8   Stage 3 Separation
The Minotaur's third stage is released to re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

T+08:49.8   Stage 4 Ignition
The Orion 38 solid rocket motor is ignited to complete the job of placing the payloads into orbit.

T+09:58.4   Stage 4 Burnout
The fourth stage uses up its propellant and burns out as it enters the targeted orbit at an altitude of about 290 miles and an orbital inclination of 40.5 degrees.

T+11:58.3   TacSat 3 Separation
The Air Force's TacSat 3 satellite is deployed from the Minotaur 1 rocket's fourth stage.

T+22:02.3   PharmaSat Separation
NASA's tiny PharmaSat spacecraft is released from a P-POD deployment system built by California Polytechnic State University.

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=16645.30

From NASA:

We have canceled tonight's launch attempt of the Minotaur 1 rocket because of poor weather conditions. A decision on the next launch attempt will be made later tonight.

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=16645.30

Next attempt will be on 8 May (GMT), same window.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html

May 7    Minotaur  •  TacSat 3
Launch time: 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. EDT
Launch site: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, Virginia

The Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket will launch the Air Force Research Laboratory's TacSat 3 advanced technology research spacecraft. The four-stage rocket uses U.S. government-supplied Minuteman 2 motors and Pegasus rocket stages. Delayed from December, March 15, June 25, Aug. 14 and Sept. 14 and October. Scrubbed May 5 due to bad weather. [May 6]

[carlos]

2 с половиной часа.

Posted by RCC on 2009-05-07 at 17:05:30 EDT
5 p.m. T-3 hours and counting. The launch team has completed vehicle test steps in the countdown. Next up is the final arming of the launch vehicle and vehicle closeout. We did have an issue with the telemetry system at our tracking site in Coquina,NC, but that has now been resolved. Surveillance plane scehduled to depart in 20 minutes to begin locating boats off Wallops Island. Latest forcast shows 70% probability of acceptable weather for launch.

Posted by RCC on 2009-05-07 at 16:01:03 EDT
4 p.m., T-4 hours and counting. 60% probability of acceptable weather for launch. Shelter moved away from the Mid-Atlantic Spaceport launch pad.

Posted by RCC on 2009-05-07 at 15:01:15 EDT
At 3 p.m. we are at T-5 hours and counting. All of the launch team is on station. The checkout of the Wallops support systems has been completed and we are beginning the final process to prepare the Minotaur rocket and TacSat-3 satellite for launch. Fog rolling in.

Posted by RCC on 2009-05-07 at 14:01:05 EDT
At 2 p.m. EDT we are at T-6 hours and counting for the launch of the Air Force Minotaur rocket. The launch window is 8 to 11 p.m. The forecast shows a 60% probability of acceptable weather for launch.

Posted by RCC on 2009-05-06 at 17:56:45 EDT
The next launch attempt for the TacSat-3 mission using the Minotaur 1 rocket is set for Thursday, May 7. The launch window is 8 to 11 p.m. The weather forecast has a 55% probablity of acceptable weather for launch. The webcast will begin at 1 p.m. EDT on May 7.

Трансляция: http://mfile.akamai.com/18569/live/reflector:59445.asx?bkup=32644