Neel Mehta
Orbital ATK has secured a contract from the U.S. Air Force‘s Space and Missiles Systems Center to provide integration, test and support services for the primary payload of the Space Test Program – 3 mission.
The company said Monday it will fit the STPSat-6 payload onto a modified satellite bus and support launch and on-orbit check-out operations to prepare for the STP-3 mission that includes space weather data collection and nuclear detonation detection.
Chris Long, vice president of national space systems at Orbital ATK, said the modular satellite bus platform is designed to host multiple instruments in efforts to meet the requirements of three government customers.
The instruments are the National Nuclear Security Administration‘s Space and Atmospheric Burst Reporting System, NASA‘s Laser Communication Relay Demonstration and seven Defense Department space experiments.
Orbital ATK said STP-3Â will launch by June 2019 under the purview of SMC’s advanced systems and development directorate.
