STARE (Re)

Spacecraft nr:

US spacecraft nr:

Launch data: Designation  38765 / 12048H Launch date  13 Sept 2012 - 21:39 UT Launch site  Vandenberg, SLC-3E Launch vehicle  Atlas-5/401 (AV-033) Mission  Mil: Remote Sensing LEO Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  489 x 791 km Eccentricity  2,15E-02 Inclination  64.6 deg Period  97.5 min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• STARE A (Space-Based Telescopes for Actionable Refinement of Ephemeris), also known as Re, is a three-unit CubeSats (called 3U CubeSats) equipped with optical imaging payloads, that will demonstrate the main elements of a new concept for tracking orbiting space debris.
• The STARE satellites are using the Boeing-built Colony II bus developed under a contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

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.