Mission History
Below is a listing of previous Astrotech Space Operations missions.
The WGS-5 (Wideband Global Satcom 5) communications satellite was built by Boeing and is headed for geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles up to join the Pentagon's communications infrastructure that routes information between civilian leadership and military forces around the globe. The satellite is designed to be part of the constellation of satellites providing global communications coverage to US forces.
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, will provide moderate-resolution measurements of the Earth's terrestrial and polar regions in the visible, near-infrared, short wave infrared, and thermal infrared.
The new Boeing-built TDRS-K series spacecraft will augment the earlier TDRS constellation that serves as NASA's means of continuous, high-data rate communication with the Hubble Space Telescope, the International Space Station and dozens of unmanned scientific satellites in low earth orbit.
Developed by the United States Air Force, the X-37B OTV is the United States’ newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft. Key objectives of the OTV program include demonstration and validation of fault tolerant, autonomous re-entry and landing, lightweight high temperature structures and landing gear, thermal protection system, and lightweight electromechanical flight systems.
The twin RBSP spacecraft are designed to help us understand the Sun’s influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the Earth’s radiation belts on various scales of space and time. The instruments will measure the properties of charged particles that comprise the Earth’s radiation belts, the plasma waves that interact with them, the large-scale electric fields that transport them, and the particle-guiding magnetic field.
The Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite is designed to be secure, survivable, and resistant to attempted jamming, and will provide communications for the US military, as well as the armed forces of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands.
The MUOS-1 satellite will ensure continued mission capability of the existing Ultra-High Frequency Satellite Communications (UHF SATCOM) system, and represents deployment of the first satellite in the next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system.
The primary mission of WGS has become supplementing and eventually replacing the Defense Satellite Communications System, or DSCS. Having started as a U.S. program, WGS has grown to include several other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership mission represents a critical first step in building the next-generation Earth-observing satellite system that will collect data on both long-term climate change and short-term weather conditions.
GRAIL’s primary science objectives will be to determine the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the Moon.
The HTV-2 flights were made as part of the Force Application and Launch From Continental United States (FALCON) program, which is being conducted by the US Air Force and DARPA.
NASA's Juno mission will study how Jupiter formed and evolved. After a five-year journey, the spacecraft is expected to arrive at the gas giant planet in August 2016. Juno will investigate the composition of the planet's core, which could help researchers piece together how Jupiter and the rest of the solar system formed.
The launch marks the start of the X-37 B program's second space mission. The OTV was designed to examine how highly complex technologies will perform in space before they are made operational. OTV was the first vehicle since NASA's shuttle orbiter capable of returning experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis.
The Glory satellite was a planned NASA satellite mission that would have collected data on the chemical, micro-physical and optical properties—and the spatial and temporal distributions—of sulfate and other aerosols, and would have collected solar irradiance data for the long-term climate record. The satellite was lost during launch, when its Taurus XL carrier rocket malfunctioned.
L-49 is a payload put into orbit for the United States Government.
The COSMO-SkyMed program is a partnership between ASI (the Italian Space Agency), the Italian Ministry of Defense, and e-GEOS, a commercial organization. It consists of four satellites, of which COSMO-4 will be the last, which have all been launched by Delta II rockets over the last three and a half years.
The SBSS system will revolutionize the nation's Space Situational Awareness by detecting and monitoring dimmer, most distant objects than ever before.
AEHF is a joint service satellite communications system that will provide survivable, global, secure, protected, and jam-resistant communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets.
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft. Based on NASA's X-37 design, the unmanned OTV is designed for vertical launch to low Earth orbit altitudes where it can perform long duration space technology experimentation and testing.
The Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) is part of "Prompt Global Strike," a US military effort to develop bombers that can strike targets with conventional weapons anywhere on the planet within minutes.
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