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 Midcourse Space Experiment | |
| Names | MSX |
|---|---|
| Operator | BMDO |
| COSPAR ID | 1996-024A |
| SATCATno. | 23851 |
| Website | MSX home page |
| Mission duration | 8 months and 8 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Launch mass | 2,700 kg (6,000 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | April 24, 1996 (1996-04-24) |
| Rocket | Delta 7920-10 |
| Launch site | Vandenberg AFBSLC-2W |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Perigee altitude | 898 km (558 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 903 km (561 mi) |
| Period | 100 minutes |
TheMidcourse Space Experiment (MSX) is aBallistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) satellite experiment (unmanned space mission) to map brightinfrared 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]
On 24 April 1996, theUS Air Force launched the MSX satellite on a Delta II launch vehicle fromVandenberg AFB,California. MSX was placed in aSun-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 theSpace Surveillance Network.
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]
Operational from 1996 to 1997, MSX mapped thegalactic plane and areas either missed or identified as particularly bright by theInfrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) at wavelengths of 4.29μm, 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]
Calibration of MSX posed a challenge for designers of the experiment, as baselines did not exist for the bands it would be observing under. Engineers solved the problem by having MSX fire projectiles of known composition in front of the detector, and calibrating the instruments to the known black-body curves of the objects. The MSX calibration serves as the basis for other satellites working in the same wavelength range, includingAKARI (2006-2011) and theSpitzer Space Telescope (SST).
MSX data is currently available in the Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) provided byNASA'sInfrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC). Collaborative efforts between theAir Force Research Laboratory and IPAC has resulted in an archive containing images for about 15 percent of the sky, including the entireGalactic Plane, theLarge Magellanic Cloud, and regions of the sky missed by IRAS.[4]
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