The Intelsat 603 satellite during a 1992 shuttle repair mission. That satellite is based on a bus similar to one that an unnamed government agency, perhaps the NRO, is offering to NASA. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON NASA is soliciting concepts for payloads that could fly on a mysterious satellite it is in discussions to inherit from another government agency.
NASA issued a request for information (RFI) Feb. 15 for a proposed spacecraft called the NASA Science/Technology Platform Satellite, or NSTP-Sat. The RFI was the first time NASA had publicly discussed such a mission.
The RFI, issued by NASAs science mission directorate, solicits ideas for payloads, including remote sensing instruments and technology demonstrations, which could fly on the spacecraft. The RFI offered few details about the proposed mission, noting NSTP-Sat could fly to low earth orbit, geostationary equatorial orbit, medium Earth orbit, Earth-Moon L1, or lunar orbit in the 2021 timeframe.
The RFI, which remains open until March 17, seeks ideas for how this spacecraft could be used to meet NASAs science and technology development goals. The RFI states that NASA will use the responses to determine whether there are science opportunities for new uses of this spacecraft and whether a solicitation for proposals is warranted to enable such opportunities.
The RFI offered few details about the spacecraft itself. The NSTP-Sat is a spacecraft platform that has become available to NASA as excess Government property through an interagency agreement, it stated. It added the spacecraft was a Boeing GEO spinner bus that could launch on an EELV-class rocket or as a secondary payload on a Space Launch System mission.
NASA and other organizations involved with NSTP-Sat have been reticent to provide additional details about how NASA gained access to the satellite bus. Alan Zide, a program executive in NASAs heliophysics division and the point of contact listed in the RFI, did not respond to email messages with questions about the satellite.
NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown said March 1 that NASA is in discussions with the U.S. Air Force to obtain the bus. NASA and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) are in discussions concerning the transfer of a satellite bus that the USAF has determined does not meet current or projected Air Force mission requirements, he said.
U.S. Air Force spokeswoman Capt. AnnMarie Annicelli said March 2 she was not familiar with the satellite and was looking into it, but has not provided any additional information. When asked who the original customer was for this Boeing-built satellite, Addrian Brooks, a spokesman for Boeing Network and Space Systems, said March 2 that the company was unable to disclose this information.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who specializes in space history, notes the dimensions for the satellite provided in the RFI are consistent with two versions of satellites built by Hughes Space and Communications. One, the HS-389, was used for the Intelsat 6 series of satellites, while the HS-393 was sold to other commercial customers. Those satellites were built and launched in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Boeing acquired Hughes Space and Communications in 2000.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), he noted, is thought to have used the same bus for a series of data relay satellites operating under the code name QUASAR, also known as the Satellite Data System (SDS). Four such satellites launched from 1989 through 1996.
Spin-stabilized satellites have fallen out of favor, having been replaced by three-axis stabilized satellites. The last Boeing-built commercial spin-stabilized satellite, a Boeing 376 spacecraft called e-BIRD, launched in 2003.
McDowell said a later generation of QUASAR satellites, launched from 1998 to as recently as 2014, were also assumed to be three-axis stabilized. However, he noted theres little known about this series of satellites, leaving open the possibility it also used the same bus as the earlier spacecraft.
Its possible that some other NRO program also used this bus, but QUASAR/SDS is definitely the most likely, he said in a March 3 email.
If the satellite in question is indeed from the NRO, it would not be the first time NASA inherited spare hardware from that intelligence agency. In 2012, NASA announced it was taking possession of two 2.4-meter mirror assemblies from the NRO. The mirrors were reportedly built for NROs Future Imagery Architecture program, and became surplus when the NRO cancelled the optical portion of that program in the mid-2000s.
NASA, after taking possession of the mirrors, solicited ideas from the scientific community on how to use what it called Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets. NASA decided to use one of the mirrors for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which originally planned to build a much smaller mirror. WFIRST is planned for launch in the mid-2020s.
Phillip Swarts contributed to this story.
Excerpt from:
NASA seeks payload ideas for mystery satellite - SpaceNews
- 2D Laser Profiling Scanner for Detecting Targets - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Energy Concept Could Harness the Power of Ocean Waves - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Data Acquisition Modules - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dr. Scott Barthelmy, Research Scientist, Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Laser Tracker Ensures Accurate Alignment of Ares I Components - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dual Cryogenic Capacitive Density Sensor - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Advanced Technologies Will Help Hubble Yield More Remarkable Discoveries - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dr. Gerard Holzmann, Senior Research Scientist at the Laboratory for Reliable Software, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Research Will Help Aircraft Avoid Ocean Storms and Turbulence - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Awards 2008 Software of the Year - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Here Come The Tricorders - Update - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- China's View on Space - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Milsat Coordination and Tracking Issues - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Trash Talking and End Runs at NASA HQ - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ares 1-Y is Toast - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Beyond Augustine - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Analyzing LCROSS' Plume - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Live Event: NASA-Sponsored Power Beaming Challenge - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- JSC Wants To Build a Replicator - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- USA: Looking For Ways To Hang On - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Lunar Lander Challenge Prizes Awarded - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Senate Votes To Restore NASA Budget Cuts - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New FAA Regs for Commercial Reentry - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- TEDxNASA: An Invitation-Only NASA Meeting - Unless You Are Lucky - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Close Call For Courtney Stadd - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Space: A Waste? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Making NASA Cool - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Engaging JSC’s Next Gen: A Leadership Analysis - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dumpster Diving for Rockets - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- TEDx NASA - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Reflections On a Business Trip in Huntsville - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Staying the Course - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Economics of Space - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ideas at Work - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Blah Blah Blah - Why We Should Care About Social Media - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Will White House Speak Soon About NASA? - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Software Aids Design of Ares V Composite Shroud Structure - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- ASDX Series of silicon pressure sensors - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Industry Update: Analysis & Simulation Software - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Battery Will Provide Backup Power for Space Shuttles - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- NASA Employee Claims To Have Witnessed Hijacking Planning - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Big Party in The Mojave Tonight - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Looking at Boulders on the Moon - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- SpaceBook Featured by White House - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- New Ways to Use Constellation Stuff - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- LaRC internal Poll Update - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Coalition for Space Exploration Does a (Much Needed) Reboot - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Lunar Orbiter: Comparing Old and New Images - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Boulder Trails On The Moon - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Vote for John Grunsfeld - National Geographic Adventurer of the YeAR - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Charlie Bolden at WIA/AIAA - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Live Webcast From The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Big Aerospace Warns of Job Cut Impact - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Boulders of Copernicus - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- shame on us - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- 2009 Space Elevator Games - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Random Hacks of Kindness - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- TEDx NASA Tickets Available to the Public - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- It’s better in person - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Leading Amidst the Disruptive Innovation Storm - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Space: What’s NOT to Hope for? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Government in the Digital Age - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- SpaceUp – A Space Unconference - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Starfleet Academy? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Crowdsourcing NASA - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Bringing Home The Bacon - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Anti-Space Mom with Pro-Space Kids - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- How Quickly We Forget - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- WISE Launch A Success - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Dynetics Buys Orion Propulsion - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- New NASA Governance Structure Under Development - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Bolden Meets With Obama on Wednesday - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- MSFC Procurement Doesn't Understand what "Open Source" Means - December 16th, 2009 [December 16th, 2009]
- Bolden Meets With Obama - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Parker Griffith AT MSFC Today - December 18th, 2009 [December 18th, 2009]
- Why Your NASA Computer May Not Work Properly - December 18th, 2009 [December 18th, 2009]
- Lakes and Fog on Titan - December 18th, 2009 [December 18th, 2009]
- Waterworld Found - December 18th, 2009 [December 18th, 2009]
- Pandora Could Exist - December 18th, 2009 [December 18th, 2009]
- Laurie Leshin Is The New ESMD Deputy AA - December 18th, 2009 [December 18th, 2009]