orbital sciences

Launched from STS-51
The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), a significant activity of the NASA Space Communications Program, provided for the development and flight test of high-risk, advanced communications satellite technology. Using multiple spot beam antennas and advanced on-board switching and processing systems, ACTS pioneered new initiatives in communications satellite technology. NASA Glenn Research Center was responsible for the development, management, and operation of ACTS as part of a long legacy of experimental communications satellites.

Launched from STS-51
The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), a significant activity of the NASA Space Communications Program, provided for the development and flight test of high-risk, advanced communications satellite technology. Using multiple spot beam antennas and advanced on-board switching and processing systems, ACTS pioneered new initiatives in communications satellite technology. NASA Glenn Research Center was responsible for the development, management, and operation of ACTS as part of a long legacy of experimental communications satellites.

ORBCOMM provides satellite data services, As of August 18, 2009, ORBCOMM reported 500,000 billable subscriber communicators on the company's U.S.-based gateway control center. ORBCOMM has control centers in the United States, Brazil, Japan, and Korea, as well as U.S. ground stations in New York, Georgia, Arizona, and Washington State, and international ground stations in Curaçao, Italy, Australia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia. Plans for additional ground station locations are under way.
Orbcomm is best suited for users who send very small amounts of data. To avoid interference, terminals are not permitted to be active more than 1% of the time, and thus they may only execute a 450ms data burst twice every 15 minutes. The latency inherent in Orbcomm's network design prevents it from supporting certain safety-critical applications.

STEX will test lightweight, high performance spacecraft technologies that have been proven in the laboratory aboard an experimental satellite. The experiment helps the NRO decide if the technology under testing is right, if it can be effectively incorporated into an operational spaceflight system, and if it can be operated in space. Its experiments could provide potential improvements in spacecraft technology for both military and civil satellites.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) satellite was placed into low Earth orbit March 12 by an Orbital Sciences Taurus rocket. Liftoff occurred at 0929 UTC (01:29 PST) from pad 576-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. MTI is designed to spend three years in space testing new imaging technologies that might be used by future spy satellites. The 610 kg (1345 lbm) satellite carries a sophisticated telescope that collects day and night images of the Earth in 15 spectral bands ranging from the visible to long-wave infrared. If the techniques work, they could detect facilities on Earth suspected of producing nuclear or chemical weapons of mass destruction. The satellite was designed and built by a government and industry team led by Sandia National Laboratories, including the Air Force Research Laboratory, Ball Aerospace, Raytheon, and TRW.  MTI will fly in a 555 km (360 nmi) circular sun-synchronous orbit inclined at 97 degrees to earth's equator.