ORS-1
ORS-1 is the first satellite in the DOD’s Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS) program designed to support Combatant Command operations as an operational prototype. The payload leverages a SYERS-2 sensor, the primary imaging sensor on the U-2 reconnaissance plane. The ORS-1 payload was built by the Goodrich Corporation, who also served as prime contractor, while the spacecraft bus was built by ATK Spacecraft Systems & Services, Beltsville, Md. It includes an integrated propulsion system as well as other critical subsystems for communications, attitude control, thermal control and command and data handling. ORS-1 will provide crucial battlespace awareness supporting U.S. Central Command.
Col. Carol P. Welsch, Acting Director of the Space Development and Test Directorate, and the mission director for ORS-1 shared some background and thoughts on the mission.
“In 2008, the Operationally Responsive Space Office approached the Space Development and Test Directorate and suggested a partnership to meet an urgent warfighter need. We knew this would be a tough challenge, but we were eager to do whatever we could to assist US Central Command. I want to thank Dr. Wegner for his confidence in the Space Development and Test Directorate. As a result of this partnership, the Space Development and Test Directorate was tasked to provide the satellite, command and control system, test capabilities, and the launch vehicle. We are immensely proud to field space capabilities supporting U.S. Central Command and our forces engaged in the fight.
“In order to meet the timelines requested by US Central Command, we tailored the Space and Missiles Systems Center’s standard approach to space acquisition to accept a higher risk posture than other than other space system acquisition programs. For example, ORS-1 uses some components which have not been qualified to standards for space flight. To mitigate some of the risk, the team introduced measures such as memory error detection and correction algorithms to help detect and repair any upsets to the on-board memory. Along the way we’ve learned many lessons in the art of rapid space acquisitions, and once ORS-1 is on-orbit, we will continue to learn how to more rapidly provide space capabilities. This combined government and contractor team has demonstrated great dedication and persistence to meet the challenge of developing a new satellite and supporting ground system in record time.
“On the launch vehicle side, this mission represents another milestone for the Minotaur program. This will be the 10th launch of the Minotaur I and the 4th launch for the Minotaur program from the Wallops Flight Facility.”
The Space Development and Test Directorate’s mission is to deliver small, responsive space capabilities to users across the National Security Space community. The Directorate consists of a combined team of 1,000+ military, government civilians and contractors responsible for the development, acquisition, launch, demonstration, test and operations of Department of Defense and civil space systems. As the Director of the DOD Space Test Program, Col. Welsch is responsible for executing the DOD Space Test Program, providing access to space for over 73 space experiments from across the DOD Services and Agencies.
The first Operationally Responsive Space (ORS-1) mission is in final preparation for a June 28 launch from Wallops Island, Va., only 30 months after the contract was signed.
ReplyDelete• Intended to give U.S. Central Command forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Central Asia another means for targeting overhead reconnaissance, the spacecraft is scheduled to be launched by an Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur 1 in a 3-hr. window that opens at 8:28 p.m. EDT. The launch from the barrier island east of Chesapeake Bay may be visible along the U.S. East Coast from New York to North Carolina, and as far west as West Virginia.
• Developed under a Pentagon initiative to build spacecraft designed for specific purposes quickly, the Minotaur 1 will carry a version of the Senior Year Electro-Optical Reconnaissance System (Syers) 2A that flies on the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Goodrich builds the Syers 2A sensor and integrated it onto an ATK satellite bus at its Danbury, Conn., facility. The contract was signed 17 days after the Air Force secretary issued authority to proceed, Wegner says. Critical design review came eight months later.
• “[Syers 2A] looks very much like an airborne sensor to the operators in Central Command,” said Peter Wegner, director of the Defense Department Operational Responsive Space Office, in a pre-launch teleconference June 24. “The very same computer software system that is used to task airborne ISR assets, airborne imagery systems, they will use those exact same assets to task this spacecraft.”
• ORS-1 is bound for a 400-km (250-mi.) orbit at a 40-deg. inclination, and will be available to the U.S. Air Force 1st Space Operations Sqdn. after a 30-day checkout period, according to mission director Col. Carole Welsch
• The ORS-1 launch will be the 10th for a Minotaur 1 and fourth on that vehicle from Wallops Island. Because of similarities with the fairing mechanism on Orbital’s Taurus I vehicle, which has twice failed to orbit NASA satellites from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., due to fairing-separation failure, the ORS-1 launch vehicle has received extra scrutiny.
• The review found “no evidence” that previous Minotaur flights experienced the same issues that were blamed in the Taurus I failures, according to Lou Amorosi, vice president for orbital/suborbital programs at Orbital Sciences. “However, to be absolutely safe, we recommended, and the Air Force and the ORS office accepted, a couple of minor modifications” to the launch vehicle, one mechanical and one in the software, Amorosi says.