Note: Starshine
lifted
off from the Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska, at 6:40 P.M.
Alaska
Daylight Time, September 29, 2001 (02:40 GMT onSeptember
30,
2001).
Starshine-3
Satellite
The Starshine-3 satellite wasbuilt
with the help
of hundreds of grade school students from around
the world,
Starshine will blast off into a 300-mile-high orbit
aboard an
Athena I solid-fuel rocket from the Kodiak Alaska Launch
Complex .
Starshine-3 was designed and
built by NRL's
Spacecraft Engineering Department. The one-meter
diameter
sphere carries a battery, a transmitter/receiver, solar
cells,
two antennas, and is covered with more than 1,500 mirrors.
These mirrors were hand-polished by students around the world
using diamond paste and sandpaper. After a protective coating
was applied to each, the mirrors were sent to the NRL for
installation
on the satellite. Starshine-3 will also flight
demonstrate a
battery that is integrated onto a solar cell and
a new, innovative
lightweight satellite ejection
system.
Once this
satellite is launched,
students will be able to follow it as it
passes overhead by observing
the sunlight flashing off all
those mirrors. Precise timing of
their observations will be
used to measure the orbital decay
of the satellite, and the
density of the upper atmosphere can
therefore be
deduced.
NRL
designed and manufactured
the Starshine I satellite structure
in 1998 for its mid-1999
launch and worked this past spring on
the installation of student-polished
mirrors for the Starshine
2 satellite, which is expected to launch
in early December
2001. More information about all of the Starshine
programs can
be found at http://azinet.com/starshine/.
The appearance of an external
hyperlink does not constitute endorsement by the Department of
Defense.The Federal Government takes no responsibility for and
exercises no control over non-governmental sites, the view that
may be represented, or the accuracy, privacy policies, copyright
or trademark compliance, or the legality of any materialcontained
on those sites.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is the Navy's full-spectrum corporate laboratory, conducting a broadly based multidisciplinary program of scientific research and advanced technological development. The Laboratory, with a total complement of nearly 2,500 personnel, is located in southwest Washington, D.C., with other major sites at the Stennis Space Center, Miss., and Monterey, Calif. NRL has served the Navy and the nation for over 85 years and continues to meet the complex technological challenges of today's world. For more information, visit the NRL homepage or join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Comment policy: We hope to receive submissions from all viewpoints, but we ask that all participants agree to the Department of Defense Social Media User Agreement. All comments are reviewed before being posted.