SMDC-ONE 1.2 (Baker)

Spacecraft nr:

US spacecraft nr:

Launch data: Designation  38759 / 12048B Launch date  13 Sept 2012 - 21:39 UT Launch site  Vandenberg, SLC-3E Launch vehicle  Atlas-5/401 (AV-033) Mission  Mil: Technology development LEO Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  483 x 789 km Eccentricity  2,18E-02 Inclination  64.6 deg Period  97.4 min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• The mission objectives are: Demonstrate the ability to rapidly design and develop militarily relevant low cost spacecraft. Receive packetized data from multiple Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS). Transmit that data to ground stations within the SMDC-ONE ground track. Provide real time voice and text message data relay to and from field deployed tactical radio systems. Demonstrate SMDC-ONE operational life time of 12 months or longer.

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.