STPSat 3

STPSat-3

USA

Spacecraft nº:

US spacecraft nº:

Prime manufacturer	Ball Aerospace (prime); AeroAstro (bus)
Platform	Astro-200;
Operator	USAF STP (Space Test Program)
Mass at launch	180 kg
Dry Mass	kg
Basic shape
Dimension (m)
Equipment	2 SPEX, ODTML (#2); iMESA-R, J-CORE, SSU, SWATS, TCTE, De-Orbit Module (#3)
Solar array	3 deployable solar arrays
Stabilization
Propulsion
DC power
Design lifetime	1 yr

STPSat 3 is a copy of the STPSat 2 satellite, which will carry five experiments, including a module designed to host various space situational awareness sensors and a pair of space environment sensors.
STPSat-3 carries technology and space weather experiments, including an important Total Solar Irradiance sensor, TCTE, to provide data lost when the Glory launch failed.
- iMESA-R (Integrated Miniaturized Electrostatic Analyzer Reflight), a U.S. Air Force Academy mission designed to measure plasma densities and energies
- J-CORE (Joint Component Research), a space phenomenology mission sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) /EO Countermeasures Technology Branch (RYMW) & Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC)
- SSU (Strip Sensor Unit), an AFRL Directed Energy (RD) experiment to provide risk reduction through on-orbit testing and operation of a sensor assembly
- SWATS (Small Wind and Temperature Spectrometer), a Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) mission to provide in-situ measurements of the neutral and plasma environment to characterize the Earth’s ionosphere and thermosphere
- TCTE (TSI Calibration Transfer Experiment), a NASA/NOAA mission to collect high accuracy, high precision measurements of Total Solar Irradiance to monitor changes in solar irradiance incident at the top the Earth’s atmosphere with TCTE instrument provided by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, originally built as a flight-spare instrument for SORCE.

Ref.: #7(JR689), #12, #14, #110, #228 - update: 29.08.15