STRV-2 payload early orbit experience and findings

The STRV-2 (Space Technology Research Vehicle) Experiment Module (EM), was launched June 7, 2000 on a Pegasus XL launcher out of Vandenberg Air Force Base. STRV-2 is the primary payload on this Triservice Experiment Mission 5 (TSX-5), which is the sixth mission for the Air Force Space Test Program (STP). The EM is an integrated collection of eleven active experiments and one passive. The active experiments are commanded and controlled by the STRV-2 System Control Module (SCM) over a 1553 bus. The SCM is also the data interface to the spacecraft's command, communications, and data handling processors. The active Experiments include high data rate optical communications, infrared imaging of aircraft and ships, vibration isolation and suppression, micrometeoroid impact detection, active pixel sensor imaging, micro-g accelerometers, contamination transport mechanisms, advanced solar photovoltaic systems, thermal control materials, and radiation monitors on a chip. The TSX-5 orbit is a 410-km by 1710-km elliptical orbit, which takes STRV-2 into the Mid-Earth Orbit (MEO) region of space. STRV-2 is the first to study the micrometeoroid and debris population at these altitudes.