2013-064AF
ORS Enabler Mission by Minotaur from WI. Primary payload is STPSAt-3 for SMC. Integrated Payload Stack with two Cubestack Wafers. Total 27 payloads, including non-separating - attached to the Minotaur final stage are the AFSS safety system, and an STP drag device (and possibly an Ames DroidSat payload). The ORS-3 name applies to the mission and to the final stage attached payloads.
The ORS-3 Mission was launched by a Minotaur I from Wallops Island into a 500 x 500 km x 40 deg orbit carrying the STPSat-3 research satellite and two CubeStack wafers which eject a total of 28 Cubesats. STPSat-3 carries technology and space weather experiments, including an important Total Solar Irradiance sensor, TCTE, to provide data lost when the Glory launch failed. The ORS-3 Minotaur final stage carries an experimental launch tracking system and a drag device to reduce the amount of time it spends in orbit. The upper wafer carries four 6U Cubesat dispensers for NRO missions, and the lower wafer carries eight 3U P-POD cubesat dispensers for various payloads including NASA's ELANA IV cubesat cluster. The basic 1U Cubesat is a 0.1m cube; 3U Cubesats are 0.1 x 0.1 x 0.3m boxes. The 28 Cubesats on the launch total 48U of volume.
The ELANA IV cluster consists of 10 of the 1U Cubesats and one 3U one - TJ3Sat, from Thomas Jefferson High School DragonSat, from Drexel University and the US Naval Academy COPPER, from Saint Louis University ChargerSat 1, from U. Alabama-Huntsville SwampSat, from U. Florida-Gainesville Ho'oponopono 2, a 3U sat for radar calibration, from U. Hawaii-Manoa KySat-2 from Kentucky Space, Lexington, Kentucky CAPE 2, from U. Louisiana-Lafayette Trailblazer, from U. New Mexico-Albequerque Vermont Lunar Cubesat, from Vermont Technical College, testing equipment for a proposed future lunar mission PhoneSat-2.4, from NASA-Ames, with systems based on a Nexus/Android cellphone Two further 1U satellites are packaged with ELANA IV: NPS-SCAT for the US Navy Postgraduate School, with a solar cell exposure experiment Black Knight 1, for the US Military Academy at West Point. This accounts for 5 of the 8 P-POD deployers on the lower deck. The remaining satellites are Horus (STARE-B), a 3U Lawrence Livermore experiment for space debris monitoring; SENSE-A and SENSE-B 3U ionospheric monitoring satellites for the USAF Space and Missile Center 8 Prometheus low orbit tactical communications satellites, each 1.5U, for the US Southern Command (SOCOM), developed by Los Alamos. ORSES, a 3U ORS Enabler Satellite, a tactical comms satellite for the USAF Operationally Responsive Space office and the US Space and Missile Defense Command. ORS Tech 1 and 2, 3U satellites for USAF ORS developed by APL.
| ORS-3 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 Nov 20 | 0115 | Launch by Minotaur I | WI LA0B |
| T+1:01 S1 sep, S2 ign | |||
| T+1:18 S2 skirt sep | |||
| T+2:13 S2 sep | |||
| T+2:15 S3 ig | |||
| 0117 | T +2:25 Fairing sep | ||
| 0118 | T+3:30 S3 burnout | ||
| 0123 | T+8:57 S3 sep | -3963 x 505 x 41.10 | |
| 0124 | T+9:08 S4 burn | 505 km VRel 5.11 at -55.07 31.03 | |
| 0125 | T+10:14 S4 burnout | ||
| 0127 | T+12:14 STPSAT sep | ||
| 0129 | T+14:44 CCAM 1 | ||
| 0134 | T+19:49 Wafer-1 deploy start | ||
| 0137 | T+22:19 Wafer-2 deploy start | ||
| 0140 | T+25:54 CCAM-2 | ||
| 0144 | T+29:04 RCS depletion | ||
