Midcourse Space Experiment

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Midcourse Space Experiment
Midcourse Space Experiment
NamesMSX
OperatorBMDO
COSPAR ID1996-024A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.23851
WebsiteMSX home page
Mission duration8 months and 8 days
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass2,700 kg (6,000 lb)
Start of mission
Launch dateApril 24, 1996 (1996-04-24)
Rocket
SLC-2W
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
Perigee altitude898 km (558 mi)
Apogee altitude903 km (561 mi)
Period100 minutes

The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) is a

unmanned space mission) to map bright infrared sources in space. MSX offered the first system demonstration of technology in space to identify and track ballistic missiles during their midcourse flight phase.[1]

History

On 24 April 1996, the

Vandenberg AFB, California. MSX was placed in a Sun-synchronous orbit
at 898 km and an inclination of 99.16 degrees. MSX's mission was to gather data in three spectral bands (long wavelength infrared, visible, and ultraviolet).

From 13 May 1998, MSX became a contributing sensor to the

Space Surveillance Network
.

Launch debris incident

Lottie Williams was exercising in a park in Tulsa on January 22, 1997, when she was hit in the shoulder by a 15-centimetre (6 in) piece of blackened metallic material.

U.S. Space Command confirmed that a used Delta II rocket from the April 1996 launch of the Midcourse Space Experiment had re-entered into the atmosphere 30 minutes earlier. The object tapped her on the shoulder and fell off harmlessly onto the ground. Williams collected the item and NASA tests later showed that the fragment was consistent with the materials of the rocket, and Nicholas Johnson, the agency's chief scientist for orbital debris, believes that she was indeed hit by a piece of the rocket.[2]

Operations

Operational from 1996 to 1997, MSX mapped the

μm
, 4.35 μm, 8.28 μm, 12.13 μm, 14.65 μm, and 21.3 μm.

It carried the 33-cm SPIRIT III infrared telescope and interferometer–spectrometer with solid hydrogen-cooled five line-scanned infrared focal plane arrays.[3]

Alpha Centauri by MSX

AKARI (2006-2011) and the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST)
.

MSX data is currently available in the Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) provided by

Galactic Plane, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and regions of the sky missed by IRAS.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Williams, Frank. "Space-Based Surveillance Operations Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration," Space Tactics Bulletin, Vol 6, Issue 4
  2. ^ "Space Junk Survivor". March 3, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.; Long, Tony (January 22, 1997). "Jan. 22, 1997: Heads Up, Lottie! It's Space Junk!". Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  3. ^ The Spatial Infrared Imaging Telescope III (SPIRIT III)
  4. ^ Spitzer Space Telescope at IPAC
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