As part of a Southwest Research Institute team led by Principal Investigator Dr. David McComas, Orbital was selected in January 2005 to develop, build and launch a small spacecraft on a Pegasus rocket for NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission. The spacecraft is based on Orbital’s MicroStar spacecraft product line.
The IBEX satellite will orbit the Earth every seven and one half days on a highly-elliptical path that takes it to an apogee of 47 Earth Radii (Re), or 78% of the distance to the Moon, to make the first comprehensive map of the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. Measuring this interstellar interaction is important for understanding our protection from galactic cosmic rays - which are energetic particles from beyond the solar system that could pose health risks to future astronauts exploring deep space.
The Orbital-built IBEX spacecraft was boosted into orbit by an Orbital-supplied Pegasus launch vehicle from the Kwajalein Atoll launch site in the central Pacific Ocean. The spacecraft incorporated an on-board solid rocket motor to propel it to the final high-altitude orbit beyond Earth’s magnetosphere, as required by IBEX’s scientific instruments.
Performance:
Orbit: Approximately 12,000 x 300,000 km @ 11°
Launch Mass: 462 kg with Star-27 rocket motor and fuel; 105 kg without
Stabilization: Spin stabilized, inertially pointed
Solar Array: 116 W EOL, body mounted solar cells
Stabilization: Sun-pointing major axis spinner
Design Life: 24 months baseline
Status:
Operational, launched on October 19, 2008
Customer: Southwest Research Institute
Mission: NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) Program
Quick Facts Key Partners:
NASA Explorer’s Program Office
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD (NASA Program management)
Southwest Research Institute
San Antonio, TX
(Prime Contractor for the IBEX Mission); Orbital,
Dulles, VA, Chandler, AZ, Vandenberg AFB, CA (Spacecraft and launch vehicle design, fabrication and operations)
Additional Partners:
Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (LMATC)
Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LNL)
Alliant Techsystems (ATK)
University of New Hampshire (UNH)
Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum
