By Ann Roosevelt
The first Army nanosatellite achieved lift off from Launch Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, Fla., Dec. 8 at 9:43 a.m. Eastern–the first Army-built satellite in more than 50 years, officials said.
Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (USASMDC-ARSTRAT) is the Army lead for the SMDC-ONE nanosatellite program.
The Space and Missile Defense Command-Operational Nanosatellite Effect, or SMDC-ONE, is a cube about nine inches long and weighs less than 10 pounds, John Cummings, a command spokesman, told sister publication Defense Daily. The nanosat has antennas on all four corners.
SMDC-ONE launched on a Falcon 9 two-stage booster, a Space Exploration Technologies, Inc, or SpaceX, launch vehicle as a secondary payload. The primary payload for this flight is the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
The primary objective of the SMDC-One maiden flight is to demonstrate the command can use a small satellite to receive data from a ground transmitter such as unattended ground sensors and relay that data to a ground station.
The intent of this technology demonstration is to build a number of identical satellites and deploy them together into Low Earth Orbit to simulate enhanced tactical communications capability and evaluate nanosat performance.
“In the long run, we want to prove we can put up constellations of these [small satellites] for short-term use,” Cummings said. The small sats would have a tactical application in theater, assisting a ground component commander with communications for a period of about 90 days.
Approximately 45 minutes after launch, SMDC-ONE deployed from the Falcon 9 trunk unit located in the second stage of the rocket and was placed into a Low Earth Orbit. After being dormant for 30 minutes, the nanosatellite deployed its receiver antennas. Even though in a tumbling mode, the satellite contacted the ground station at USASMDC/ARSTRAT on Redstone Arsenal, Ala., and provided “state-of-health” data. During orbits over the next four days, contact with the second ground station in Colorado Springs, Colo.
After deployment, it is expected that SMDC-ONE will remain in orbit for approximately 30 days before dropping out of orbit. Because of its small size and weight, SMDC-ONE is expected to be destroyed during reentry in the atmosphere.
In April 2009, USASMDC/ARSTRAT took delivery of eight of the four-kilogram satellites at the end of a one-year contract effort lead by Miltec of Huntsville, Ala., Pericle Communications Company, of Colorado Spring, Colo., and Clyde Space Limited of Glasgow, Scotland.
Two of the nanosats are flight ready and the command is scheduled to launch two in late 2011, Cummings said.