Space Technology 5

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Space Technology 5

Artist's conception of the "string of pearls" constellation
Organization	NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Mission Type	Earth observation
Launch	March 22, 2006 on Pegasus XL
Launch site	Vandenberg Air Force Base
Mission duration	90 days
Mass	25 kg
Webpage	nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/st5/
Orbital elements
Apogee	4500 km [1]
Perigee	300 km
Eccentricity	0.239
Inclination	105.6°
Orbital Period	137 minutes
Mean Local Time of the ascending node	18:00
Argument of perigee	160°
Instruments

The three small spacecraft of Space Technology 5 (or ST5) were launched on March 22, 2006 using a Pegasus XL rocket. These were developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as part of NASA's New Millennium program.

There are 10 new technologies that will be tested by this set of microsatellites. [2]. One technology involves antennas that were designed by computers using an evolutionary AI system developed at NASA Ames Research Center. The ST5 on-board flight computer, the C&DH (Command & Data Handling) system, is based on a Mongoose-V radiation-hardened microprocessor.

On June 30, 2006, the satellites making up ST5 were shut down after successfully completing their technology validation mission.

[edit] References

• Speer, D. and G. Jackson and D. Raphael, "Flight Computer Design for the Space Technology 5 (ST-5) Mission," Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, March 2002.

[edit] See also

• List of spaceflights (2006)

[edit] External links

• Space Technology 5 JPL NMP page
• Space Technology 5 NASA page
• Space Technology 5 Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
• Space Technology 5 eoPortal Directory page – Based on Herbert J. Kramer's Observation of the Earth and Its Environment: Survey of Missions and Sensors, updated electronic edition 2006
• NASA Ames Research Center's Intelligent Systems Division
• SpaceFlightNow.com Coverage of Launch