The STPSat-1 mission was launched on March 8, 2007, into Low Earth Orbit as one of the payloads on the maiden flight of the EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) ring aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle (AV-013 / STP-1). As a satellite without redundant hardware components, designed with a one-year life span, this satellite continues to exceed the per-orbit data collection requirements of the two active Navy experiments onboard: the Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER) and the Computerized Ionospheric Tomography Receiver in Space (CITRIS). Comtech AeroAstro designed, built, and tested the spacecraft bus and integrated the SHIMMER and CITRIS payloads. The Naval Research Laboratory, which built the SHIMMER and CITRIS payloads, operates STPSat-1 from their Blossom Point facility near LaPlata, Maryland in southern Charles County. For the first year on-orbit, the project was sponsored by the DoD Space Test Program. The second year on-orbit has been sponsored by the Navy Research Laboratory. (Image courtesy of Comtech AeroAstro)
Satnews Daily
April 12th, 2009
Comtech AeroAstro's Birthday Bonanza With STPSat-1
The STPSat-1 mission was launched on March 8, 2007, into Low Earth Orbit as one of the payloads on the maiden flight of the EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) ring aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle (AV-013 / STP-1). As a satellite without redundant hardware components, designed with a one-year life span, this satellite continues to exceed the per-orbit data collection requirements of the two active Navy experiments onboard: the Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER) and the Computerized Ionospheric Tomography Receiver in Space (CITRIS). Comtech AeroAstro designed, built, and tested the spacecraft bus and integrated the SHIMMER and CITRIS payloads. The Naval Research Laboratory, which built the SHIMMER and CITRIS payloads, operates STPSat-1 from their Blossom Point facility near LaPlata, Maryland in southern Charles County. For the first year on-orbit, the project was sponsored by the DoD Space Test Program. The second year on-orbit has been sponsored by the Navy Research Laboratory. (Image courtesy of Comtech AeroAstro)