ORS 3: STPSat 3 + попутные ПН - Minotaur I - MARS LP-0B - 20.11.2013 01:15 UTC

[Salo]

November 4 - ORS 3: STPSat 3, ORSES, ORS Tech 1, ORS Tech 2, Prometheus 1, Prometheus 2, Prometheus 3, Prometheus 4, SENSE 1, SENSE 2, Firefly, STARE B (Horus), NPS-SCAT, CSIP, Rampart, CAPE 2, KYSat 2, Lunar Orbiter&Lander CubeSat, SwampSat, Black Night 1, SPA-1 Trailblazer, TetherSat, DragonSat 1, COPPER, PhoneSat 2.4 - Minotaur I - MARS LP-0B - 23:30-02:30

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/37195stpsat-3-delivered-to-wallops-for-virginia-spaceport%E2%80%99s-fourth-but

STPSat-3 Delivered to Wallops for Virginia Spaceport's Fourth but Possibly Not Final Launch of 2013

By Mike Gruss, Brian Berger | Sep. 12, 2013
 

STPSat-3, built by Ball Aerospace, is the second spacecraft in an experimental Defense Department program to quickly build and launch satellites. Credit: Ball Aerospace photo

WASHINGTON — Following last week's high-profile launch of a NASA Moon probe from Virginia's Wallops Island, the launch facility is getting ready to send a second small satellite into orbit this year atop a converted intercontinental ballistic missile.
The Orbital Sciences Corp.-provided Minotaur 5 rocket that launched NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft Sept. 6 shortly before midnight on the East Coast left a streak of fire visible from Maine to South Carolina.
A smaller Minotaur 1 relying on solid-rocket motors from decommissioned Minuteman missiles for its initial boost is slated to launch in early November carrying an experimental U.S. Defense Department satellite recently delivered to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a state-run facility co-located with NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.
The satellite, the STPSat-3, was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., in 47 days and is the second spacecraft in an experimental Defense Department program to quickly build and launch satellites.
"STPSat-3 will demonstrate the robust SIV spacecraft by carrying five payloads and a de-orbit module," Rob Strain, president of Ball Aerospace and former director of NASA's Greenbelt, Md.-based Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a Sept. 6 statement announcing that the satellite — built on Ball's Standard Interface Vehicle (SIV) platform — had arrived at Wallops for its planned Nov. 4 launch.
Looking further ahead, the STPSat-3 spacecraft will carry five payloads including missions to measure plasma densities and solar irradiances.  They include:
 

[/li]
• a U.S. Air Force Academy mission designed to measure plasma densities and energies;
   
  
• a Naval Research Laboratory wind and temperature mission to help characterize the Earth's ionosphere and thermosphere;
   
  
• a directed energy experiment from the Air Force Research Lab;
   
  
• a NASA/NOAA mission to collect precise measurements of total solar irradiance;
   
  
• and a space phenomenology mission.
  

 The STPSat-3 launch also will include the release of several cubesats.
While there was immediate word on whether the STPSat-3 launch will take place at night or during daylight hours, the next launch out of Wallops will definitely be a daytime launch.
Orbital Sciences is slated to launch its unmanned Cygnus cargo tug Sept. 17 on a NASA-sponsored demonstration flight to the international space station. Lift off is scheduled for 11:16 a.m. EDT.
 Orbital Sciences kicked off Wallops' busy 2013 in April with the maiden launch of the Antares rocket the Dulles, Va.-based company built to carry Cygnus on at least eight paid cargo runs station. The first of those paid runs is slated to lift off from Wallops between Dec. 11 and Jan. 10, according to a NASA manifest.

[Димитър]

А что за Lunar Orbiter&Lander CubeSat?

[Salo]

http://www.vtspacegrant.org/cubesat.php
http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/~jfoley/Spring2010/Spring%20Workshop%202010%20PDFs/April%2023%20Friday/1520%20Carl-Brandon-DevelopersWorkshop-2010-revised.pdf

[Димитър]

Спасибо, Сало!

[Salo]

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/virginia-spaceport-doing-booming-business-thanks-private-launches-4B11187042

Once the Antares is off the pad, attention at MARS will turn to the next Minotaur 1 launch in early November. The mission is sponsored by the Pentagon's Operationally Responsive Space office, a unit tasked with delivering tactical and research satellites on a tight budget.

The Minotaur 1's main payload is the STPSat 3 satellite, which hosts five technological research payloads and a de-orbit module. STPSat 3 is already at Wallops being prepared for the launch.

Twenty-eight CubeSats — tiny palm-sized satellites built by students, researchers and commercial entities — are also hitching a ride on the Nov. 4 launch.

[Salo]

http://www.theredstonerocket.com/military_scene/article_a489f502-25e8-11e3-be0b-001a4bcf887a.html

SMDC team shakes things up for future


Shaker Plate smdc.JPG

Posted: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 7:44 am

By JASON CUTSHAW SMDC/ARSTRAT | 0 comments

Satellite undergoes vibration testing

A team of Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command engineers got together to save time and money to ensure the future of the command's satellite program does not get shaken off track.

Members of the SMDC/ARSTRAT Space and Cyberspace Technology Directorate put their various expertise to use to help the Operationally Responsive Space Enabler Satellite, or ORSES, get mounted to a shake plate prior to random vibration testing at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

Members of the Space and Cyberspace Technology Directorate team involved with the project include Dr. Travis Taylor, Ryan Wolff, Mark Ray and Cindy McCoy.

"In order for a satellite to go into the rocket that launches it, it has to go through a process where it is shaken to simulate the launch environment," Taylor said. "It is tested to find out that it is not going to harm the launch rocket and the other payload in it, and also, survive the rigors of a launch.

"Our contractors had an adaptor plate, but it was not compatible and the mounting holes would not match up with our next satellite going up. To have this happen with the contractor, there wasn't enough money and there wasn't enough time for them to accomplish it."

With ORSES preparing to launch in early November fr om NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., it was paramount to perform all testing and preparations for the launch.

"We were concerned, and the time factor was pushing up against us," Taylor said. "So, finally we had a staff meeting, and we decided to do it ourselves. We bought our own 24-by-24, 2-inches-thick, 110-pound piece of aluminum. I, along with my dad, Charles, went out to his shop at home and worked about 20 hours in less than two days to get all the holes drilled and ready for the test.

"So what we ended up doing here at SMDC was, in a period of two to three days, was figure out how to save time and money to make sure we got our satellite tested so it will meet its launch date Nov. 4."

With time being a factor before the November launch, the team took it upon themselves to ensure all would be ready for SMDC's next generation of satellites to launch into space.

"I built the satellite and performed all of the testing, and the last thing needed was to perform vibration tests," Wolff said. "These are very aggressive and we test at loads from 6g to 13g. One thing I am most proud of is we did this all in-house. From putting the satellite together from parts and pieces to making the shake plate, we did it all here."

With the launch of ORSES, the main goal is to provide support for Soldiers serving in harm's way and to provide them with another means of communication.

"This was both a bad thing, and a good thing," Taylor said. "The bad thing is that this is the sign of the times when we don't have a lot of money in the budget to get people to help us with projects like this. The good thing is that it takes us back to wh ere we are going to have to do these things ourselves and not depend on outside sources.

"It is great to see people here in-house at SMDC really stepping up and doing great things," he added. "And with the success of the launch, we are going to help provide secure and improved tactical communications for the war fighter, you can't top that."

As the team looks to the lessons learned, they pointed out that everything happens for a reason and said they are happy to be working together for SMDC and the troops in the field.

"This team is awesome," McCoy said. "Everyone supported each other and we came together to accomplish this mission to ultimately support the troops, and SMDC can be proud."

[Salo]

http://www.kyforward.com/2013/09/sky-is-no-limit-for-engineering-students-whose-tiny-satellite-soon-will-be-launched-into-space/

Wednesday, September 18, 2013            
Sky is no limit for engineering students whose tiny satellite will be launched into space soon
                                                           
KySat-2 will orbit the Earth at an altitude of 500 km and a speed of about 8 km/second, making a trip around the planet once every 90 minutes or so. (Photo fr om UKNow)

   By Keith Hautala
 Special to KyForward
College students are often encouraged to "reach for the stars" in establishing their goals. A group of University of Kentucky students, along with their peers at Morehead State University, have done just that – literally.
In November, the satellite they built will be launched into space.
The students worked under the auspices of the Kentucky Space consortium, putting in long hours for much of the past year — in addition to their regular classes and assignments — to design, build and test the satellite, named KySat-2.
"It's a phenomenal educational opportunity," says James Lumpp, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the UK Space Systems Laboratory. "We have had both undergraduate and graduate students working on the project, even some high school interns."
KySat-2 was built to the CubeSat picosatellite standard, which restricts its volume to one liter (about a 4-inch cube, roughly the size of a tissue box) and its mass to one kilogram (2.2 pounds). CubeSat was created to bring small, affordable satellite technology within reach of educational and research institutions. The Kentucky Space consortium is one of a couple dozen or so CubeSat programs operating in the United States.
Yesterday, UK student and manager of the UK team involved, Jason Rexroat, was in Albuquerque to deliver KySat-2 in person, where it was loaded onto a carrier with other CubeSats from around the country. From there, the satellites will be transported to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, wh ere they will be launched on an unmanned rocket Nov. 4.
 

UK Steve Alvarado demonstrates software that will allow the KySat-2 team to track the position of the satellite and make contact over ham radio frequencies. (Photo from UKNow)

 "It's rare for students to get hands-on experience with an actual space engineering project," said Rexroat, a UK electrical engineering graduate student.
UK's CubeSat program is supported by grants from NASA. The students who work in the lab, many of them undergraduates, are paid employees of the university. Most other CubeSat programs are either club-based and dependent on volunteers, or they are curricular projects that involve large numbers of students working for course credit.
"We are in a fairly unique position in that we have a small number of students who are able to really dedicate themselves to work on the mission," said Steve Alvarado, an electrical engineering senior at UK. "It has been a lot of long hours and a lot of sleepless nights."
Despite its tiny size, KySat-2 is loaded with complex electronics, including an onboard computer, a digital camera, lithium-ion batteries, solar electric panels and a ham radio transceiver.
Once launched, KySat-2 will orbit about 500 km (roughly 300 miles) above the Earth, whizzing around the planet once every 90 minutes or so at speeds close to 8 km/s (18,000 mph). The team will be able to track its position from the ground using software. Two or three times a day, KySat-2 will be a tiny blip on the horizon over Lexington, for about 10 minutes at each pass.
During that brief window, the team will be able to make direct contact with KySat-2 over ham radio frequencies from a ground station in UK's F. Paul Anderson Tower. KySat-2 will send back data, including starfield photos taken with its onboard camera. The team will also be able to make connections at other times via Genso, a network of radio amateur and university ground stations around the world. There are also plans to use a mobile ground station to communicate with the satellite, in an educational outreach mission with local K-12 schools.
KySat-2 is the second Kentucky Space satellite to be built. KySat-1 was built over a period of five years, starting in 2006. Although fully tested and flight-qualified to NASA standards, KySat-1 never achieved orbit. The first Kentucky satellite was lost on March 4, 2011, as part of NASA's unsuccessful Glory mission.
"This is engineering in the extreme," Lumpp says. "Everything that goes into space has to withstand extreme changes in temperature, vacuum, exposure to radiation, intense vibration — virtually every sort of stress you can imagine. When you work in space you have to accept that there's going to be a certain amount of failure. It's just part of the game."
The KySat-2 team members are all too aware of the seemingly infinite number of things that could go wrong, but they try not to think about it too much.
"We've built it to NASA standards, we've bench tested it and put it through all of its paces numerous times," Rexroat said. "Once we hand it over, it's literally out of our hands. We have to just hope for the best."
Chris Mitchell, a computer engineering senior, acknowledges that it will be a long six weeks of waiting from now until launch day.
"Each of us has a huge emotional investment in the mission," he said. "Obviously we all want it to work perfectly."
Still, Alvarado is confident that all the hard work and sleepless nights will pay off:
"It will all be worth it for those five seconds, when we receive our first packets of data."

 Video by UK Public Relations and Marketing
Keith Hautala is a clinical information specialist at University of Kentucky.

[Salo]

Пуск отложен.

[Палкин]

Salo пишет:
Пуск отложен.

на когда?

[Salo]

Знал бы прикуп, жил бы в Сочи!

[Salo]

20 ноября в 03:30-06:30 ЛМВ

[Брабонт]

19 нагрузок. Счастье аналитикам.

[G.K.]

Виктор Воропаев пишет:
19 нагрузок. Счастье аналитикам.

А теперь внимание: сколько времени спейстрек будет тянуть с распределением названий?

[LL_]

50*19=950. Ай-йяй.

450*19=8550.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/ors3/131020shutdown/#.UmT9CFM3fpM

Government shutdown triggers Minotaur delay
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: October 20, 2013

Forced to halt launch preparations due to the partial shutdown of the U.S. government, officials are targeting a mid-November launch of a Minotaur 1 rocket from Virginia's Eastern Shore on a technology demonstration mission with a record-setting payload of 29 satellites.
 
 [SIZE=-2]File photo of a Minotaur 1 rocket at Wallops Island, Va. Credit: NASA[/SIZE]
 
 The solid-fueled launcher was supposed to blast off Nov. 4 on a mission under the banner of the U.S. military's Operationally Responsive Space office, an initiative aimed at reducing the cost and complexity of the Pentagon's space programs.
Technicians planned to begin assembling components of the four-stage rocket on launch pad 0B at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in October. But just as preparations began to ramp up for the launch, managers had to order a work stoppage Oct. 1 because the government shutdown interrupted access to facilities on NASA property, including a satellite processing building, a rocket storage complex and the launch pad.
Stacking of the four-stage Minotaur 1 rocket on its launch pad typically begins a few weeks before liftoff.
The Minotaur 1 rocket, marketed and operated by Orbital Sciences Corp., is a fusion of decommissioned Minuteman missile stages and new commercial solid rocket motors built by ATK.
Orbital Sciences continued to work at Wallops through the shutdown on the next Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, which are scheduled for launch in a window between Dec. 15 and Dec. 21, according to David Thompson, the company's chairman and CEO.
Speaking to investment analysts in an Oct. 17 third quarter earnings call, Thompson said processing of the Antares and Cygnus vehicles was exempt from the government closure because they support the International Space Station, which kept operating at full capability during the 16-day partial shutdown.
"The impacts on us were pretty modest with regard to current business," Thompson said. "All of our contracts were well-funded so we had no problems there."
But missions not deemed essential to NASA or the military, such as projects required to protect life and property, were put on the back burner during the shutdown.
 
 [SIZE=-2]A technician works on the STPSat 3 spacecraft, the largest satellite slated to launch on the Minotaur 1's next mission. Credit: Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.[/SIZE]
 
 A source familiar with preparations for the upcoming Minotaur launch, which is known as the ORS 3 mission, said the shutdown caused a day-for-day slip in the launch date. The launch has been tentatively rescheduled for Nov. 19.
Orbital Sciences announced the ORS 3 launch contract in April 2012, and one of the launch's objectives is to demonstrate officials can pull off the mission on a shortened schedule modeled on a template borrowed from the commercial space industry.
Instead of purchasing the rocket outright, the military signed a commercial launch services contract with Orbital, which is responsible for securing a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The rocket will test a new GPS tracking system and an autonomous destruct device designed to destroy the launch vehicle if it flies off course. Launch vehicles usually rely on radar tracking from ground-based antennas, and a safety officer is on standby to manually send a destruct command if the rocket veers off course.
The effort is aimed at reducing the workforce, time and cost required to launch satellites, according to the ORS office.
The Minotaur 1 rocket will launch 29 satellites into low Earth orbit, setting a new record for the most payloads ever deployed from a single rocket.
The largest payload is a technology trailblazer named STPSat 3, an approximately 400-pound spacecraft hosting five experiments to test next-generation satellite components and measure the space environment.
Four dozen more satellites will launch stowed inside CubeSat deployment pods for release once the Minotaur's upper stage reaches orbit.

[che wi]

ORS 3 Launch Manifest
http://www.zarya.info/blog/?p=1782

STPSat 3
Developed under the Space Test Program, it carries five separate packages of instruments and a passive aero-drag sytem, similar to one on the Minotaur upper stage, that will drop it from orbit at the end ot its life (up to 25 years). The following descriptions were provided by Ball Aerospace, the satellite manufacturer and are printed verbatim:
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.

NASA ELaNa 4 Cubesats
Ho`oponopono – 3U cubesat developed by students of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, and developed in co-operation with the USAF. Its purpose is to continue the radar calibration missions of RadCal (1993-041A/2269 8)  and a package aboard USA-147/DMSP F-15 (1999-067A/25991).
KySat 2 – 1U Cubesat designed, built, and tested by students of the University of Kentucky and Morehead State University, it allows students to receive data and telemetry and upload audio and text files for download by students at other schools. Students can also download (extremely) low resolution images taken by the satellite's imaging system and "command" the satellite. It replaces KySat 1 that was lost in the failed NASA Glory launch during 2011.
DragonSat-1 – 1U cubesat from Drexel Space Systems Laboratory of Drexel University carrying an Earth-imaging camera, a magnetometer, an accelerometer and seven temperature sensors. It will also test a gravity-gradient boom.
NPS-SCAT (Naval Post-graduate School – Solar Cell Array Tester) – 1U Cubesat testing solar cells and measuring how they degrade over time in the space environment.
Trailblazer – 1U Cubesat from University of New Mexico and providing proof-of-concept for an Air Force Sponsored bus technology called Space Plug-and-play Architecture (SPA). Also studying space weather with a radiation dosimeter.
ChargerSat-1 – 1U Cubesat built by Huntsville students, equipped with a gravity-gradient stabilisation boom and carrying out communications and solar cell tests.
PhoneSat 2.4 – 1U cubesat based on a Nexus telephone with Google operating system. It will take Earth images. As an addition to the PhoneSat-1 design, it can accept commands and is equipped with solar cells. Three earlier Phonesats were carried on the Cygnus test mission of 2011 Apr 21 (2013-016A, 2013-016C & 2013-016E)
Lunar Orbiter/Lander CubeSat – 1U cubesat, testing software and an imager for an eventual lunar orbiter/lander cubesat that will be sent to the Moon via a launch to geosynchronous orbit – from Vermont Technical College and the University of Vermont.
COPPER (Close Orbit Propulsion Plume and Elemental Recognition – Cube) – 1U cubesat from Parks College of Engineering, Aviation & Technology of St Louis University, to be used for infrared imaging.
Black Knight-1 – 1U Cubesat built by students at the West Point Academy to test a two-axis, passive, attitude control system and an Earth imaging camera.
SwampSat – 1U Cubesat developed by students at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, it is equipped with gyroscopes to demonstrate rapid and precise three axis attitude control.
CAPE-2 – 1U cubesat (Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment) from The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, demonstrating satellite technology including stabilisation using the Earth's magnetic field. CAPE-1 was launched 2007.
TJ³Sat – 1U cubesat from Thomas Jefferson High School of Alexandria, Virginia that will be used as a broadcast satellite at amateur frequencies, using a phonetic voice synthesizer that converts strings of text to voice.

Government/Military Cubesats
A further package of Cubesats is being carried as a USAF-sponsored payload cluster:
SENSE SV1 (Space Environmental NanoSat Experiment) – 3U Cubesat – equipped with star cameras for attitude determination, carrying CTECS (Compact Total Electron Density Sensor) for ionospheric measurements and experiments, and CTIP (Cubesat Tiny Ionospheric Photometer) to monitor photons produced by the recombination of positive oxygen ions and electrons. Its purpose is to assess the use of small satellites to monitor space weather.
SENSE SV2 (Space Environmental NanoSat Experiment) – 3U Cubesat – equipped with star cameras for attitude determination, carrying CTECS (Compact Total Electron Density Sensor) for ionospheric measurements and experiments and WINCS (Wind Ion Neutral Composite Suite) to measure atmospheric and ionospheric density, composition, temperature and movement. Its purpose is to assess the use of small satellites to monitor space weather.
Prometheus 1 – 1.5U Cubesat from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, payload unspecified but assessing the operational effectiveness of a constellation of Cubesats.
Prometheus 2 – 1.5U Cubesat from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, payload unspecified but assessing the operational effectiveness of a constellation of Cubesats.
Prometheus 3 – 1.5U Cubesat from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, payload unspecified but assessing the operational effectiveness of a constellation of Cubesats.
Prometheus 4 – 1.5U Cubesat from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, payload unspecified but assessing the operational effectiveness of a constellation of Cubesats.
ORSES (ORS Enabler Satellite) – 3U Cubesat – collaboration between ORS and Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) to provide communications and data for underserved tactical users. Based on the SMDC-ONE satellite (2012-048B/38759) but upgraded with a Software Defined Radio (Vulcan Wireless) and an NSA Type-I encryption (Raytheon) Gryphon device.
Horus/STARE (Space-based Telescope for Actionable Refinement of Ephemeris) – 3U Cubesat provided by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the National Reconnaissance Office, equipped with optical sensors to detect orbiting payloads & debris for orbit measurement. Held over from the USA 238 launch that carried its partner satellite – Re (2012-048A/3875 8) .
ORS Tech 1 – 3U Cubesat – unspecified payload from Johns Hopkins University being used to assess a multi-mission satellite bus.
Firefly – 3U Cubesat to explore the relationship between lightning and Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes (TGFs). The mission will involve students Students at Siena College in Loudonville NY, and at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne MD.

Final Rocket Stage
One payload will remain attached to the Minotaur upper stage:
SoM/DoM – a passive aero-drag de-orbit system to accelerate orital decay, similar to the one aboard STPSat 3. It was developed under the Space Test Program.
The Minotaur rocket will also carry a system to monitor its own ascent but it is not obvious which launch vehicle stage carries it:
AFSS (Autonomous Flight Safety System) – a demonstration system for use during the ascent phase of the launch that uses on-board tracking and processing to terminate an errant launch vehicle.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/ors3/status.html

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2013
 Working on an austere launch pad in Virginia, technicians have constructed a 70-foot-tall rocket out of stockpiled government-furnished missile stages and commercial hardware for launch Nov. 19 with a record payload of 29 satellites. On Thursday, workers hoisted the upper stack atop the Minotaur 1 rocket atop the booster's first and second stages. The upper stack is composed of the Minotaur 1's Orion 50XL and Orion 38 second and third stage motors, plus the rocket's payload fairing containing the mission's satellites.
The mission's 29-satellite manifest is headlined by STPSat 3, a host spacecraft for five experiments and sensors to measure the space environment. Another 28 CubeSats are housed inside "wafers" to deploy from the Minotaur upper stage once it reaches its 310-mile-high orbit.
The satellites are enclosed inside the Minotaur's fairing, which is flying in the 61-inch-diameter configuration for this launch.
Now fully assembled, the Minotaur 1 rocket is in the midst of final testing. Final preparations still to come include a launch rehearsal later this week and a launch readiness review to clear the rocket and its payloads for flight.
It will mark the third space launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport since the first week of September, following another Minotaur launch of NASA's LADEE moon probe and the Antares rocket's second flight with a commercial cargo resupply craft for the International Space Station.
One more launch - another Antares rocket heading for the space station - is scheduled for mid-December to punctuate an unparalleled flurry of activity at the Virginia rocket base.
The spaceport is operated by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority and lies on property owned by NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The launch from pad 0B at Wallops is scheduled during a four-hour window opening at 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT) on Nov. 19.
The U.S. military's Operationally Responsive Space office is sponsoring the mission.
Charged with demonstrating innovative technologies, the joint-force ORS program is headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., with oversight from the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center.
The Nov. 19 launch, known as the ORS 3 mission, will test automated launch vehicle trajectory targeting and range safety systems. Employing such capabilities on future space missions could reduce costs and the time required to prepare rockets for launch.
"These enablers not only focus on the ability to execute a rapid call up mission, they reduce engineering hours from months to days in both cases, resulting in decreased launch costs," says a mission description in an ORS fact sheet.
The ORS 3 mission also followed a commercial model in the procurement of the Minotaur 1 rocket from Orbital Sciences Corp. Officials are conducting the launch under a commercial license granted by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Officials say this approach also reduces costs and simplifies development of the mission.

[Salo]

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/MinotaurI_ORS-3/

Minotaur I/ORS-3

Launch Date:    November 19, 2013
Launch Location:    Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), Virginia
Mission Customer:    Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office

The launch of a Minotaur I rocket for the U.S. Air Force ORS-3 mission is scheduled to occur on November 19, 2013, with a planned launch window from 7:30 -9:15 pm EST. The launch, from ignition to delivery of the satellites in orbit, will take a little less than twelve-and-a-half minutes, with a targeted 500 km circular orbit at an inclination of 40.5 degrees.

Highlights of the mission include:

    25th overall launch of the Minotaur family of rockets
    6th Minotaur launch from the Wallops Flight Facility
    2nd Minotaur launch from Wallops in the last three months
    29 Satellites being launched in the mission (the most ever aboard a single rocket)
    74 total number of satellites boosted into orbit aboard Minotaur rockets since the program's
    first flight in 2000

The primary payload for the ORS-3 mission is the U.S. Air Force STPSat-3 spacecraft. In addition, the rocket will deploy 28 cubesats and carry two non separating tertiary payloads. Among the cubesats being launched is TJ3Sat, the first satellite built by high school students to be launched into space. Orbital employees advised the students who designed and built TJ3Sat and the company provided technical and financial assistance to the program.

About Minotaur I

Minotaur I is a four stage space launch vehicle capable of boosting up to 1,300 lbs. into low- Earth orbit. The rocket combines two commercial upper stage motors and other Orbital launch vehicle technologies, including structures, avionics and other elements, with two government-supplied lower-stage rocket motors to create a responsive, reliable and low-cost launch system for U.S. government-sponsored spacecraft.

Orbital conducts Minotaur launches under the U.S. Air Force's Orbital/Suborbital-3 contract, which is managed by the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA. The Space Development and Test Wing, based at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM, oversees Minotaur launches for SMC.

[Salo]

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/MinotaurI_ORS-3/TJ3Sat/

TJ3Sat

TJ3Sat is a project between the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Orbital and other industry partners to design and build a CubeSat to increase interest in aerospace technology, as part of NASA's Educational Launch of NanoSatellites (ELaNa) program. TJ3Sat will be the first satellite built by high school students to orbit the Earth when it launches from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on an Orbital Minotaur I rocket.

TJ3Sat's primary mission is to provide educational resources to other K-12 education institutions and foster interest in aerospace through the successful design and flight of a CubeSat. The program was started in December 2006 and its launch is the culmination of almost 7 years of work by more than 50 TJ students. Orbital funded the purchase of the satellite hardware and its employees mentored the students providing engineering support. The company also made its software and hardware test facilities available to the project.

Mission Overview

TJ3Sat will allow students and amateur radio users the opportunity to send and receive data from the satellite. Students and other users from around the world will be able to submit text strings to be uploaded to the TJ3Sat website.

Approved text strings will be transmitted to the satellite and its Text Speak module will convert the text messages into a voice signal which will be relayed back to Earth over an amateur radio frequency using an onboard Stensat radio. In addition to the voice signals, properly outfitted amateur radio stations will also be able to receive state of health telemetry from the satellite

Performance:    

Orbit: 500 km, 40.5° inclination
Dimension: 10 x 10 x 11 cm (3.9 x 3.9 x 4.5 in)
Launch mass: 0.89 kg (2.0 lbs)
Solar Arrays: Body mounted solar cells, >3W avg.
Stabilization: Uncontrolled
Mission Life: 6 months (2-4 year orbit lifetime)
Status:    Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), Virginia