OUTSat

Spacecraft n°:

US spacecraft n°:

Launch data: Designation  12048N Launch date  13 Sept 2012 - 21:39 UT Launch site  Vandenberg, SLC-3E Launch vehicle  Atlas-5/401 (AV-033) Mission  Technology Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee   km Eccentricity   Inclination   deg Period   min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• OUTSat (Operational Unique Technologies Satellite) was an experimental Cubesat dispenser mounted to a Centaur upper stage.
• OUTSat consisted of a box-like NPSCuL-Lite (NPS CubeSat Launcher) built by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), which was affixed to the Aft Bulkhead Carrier (ABC) of the Centaur upper stage. This unit was powered by the Centaur and contained eight PPods, which contained 11 cubesats. After deployment of the main payload, the Centaur maneuvered to a lower orbit, were OUTSat deployed it's 11 satellites.

Mission details:

• On Sep 13, 2012 United Launch Alliance flew a Lockheed Martin Atlas V 401, serial AV-033, from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The main payload is thought to be a pair of Navy signals intelligence satellites deployed in a 1010 x 1200 km x 63.4 deg orbit after the second Centaur burn.
• The Centaur then made two further burns to 470 x 780 km x 64.7 deg. The Centaur second stage carries the OUTSat secondary payload which ejected 11 small 'cubesats,' for a mixture of US military and university customers.
• The OUTSat structure is the NPSCUl launcher developed by the US Naval Postgraduate School. It contains 8 P-POD cubesat deployers which ejected the individual cubesats, a mixture of 1U (0.1m cube), 2U (0.1 x 0.1 x 0.2m box) and 3U (0.1 x 0.1 x 0.3m box) payloads, as follows:
  

    Pod 1 3U SMDC-ONE 1.2     (US Army Space and Missile Defence Command, Huntsville, Alabama)
                               Comms
    Pod 3 3U Aeneas           (U. Southern California, Los Angeles and Dept. of Homeland Security)
                               Cargo container tracking
    Pod 4 3U CSSWE            (U. Colorado, Boulder)  Colorado Student Space Weather Expt.
                               Radiation belt electrons and protons
    Pod 5 1U CP5              (Cal Poly. State U., San Luis Obispo)
                               Solar sail deorbit technology
          2U CXBN             (Morehead State U., Morehead, Kentucky)
                               Cosmic Hard X-ray background
    Pod 6 3U CINEMA 1         (U Cal. Berkeley)
                               Magentospheric studies
    Pod 7 3U Re               (Lawrence Livermore Natl. Lab, California)
                               Space debris tracking
    Pod 8 3U SMDC-ONE 1.1     (US Army Space and Missile Defence Command, Huntsville, Alabama)
                               Comms
    Pod 2 1U Aerocube 4       (Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, California)
          1U Aerocube 4A      (Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, California)
          1U Aerocube 4B      (Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, California)
  

  
  
• The payloads were ejected in the order Pod 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,2. The OUTSat remained attached to the Centaur.