Sapphire is a Canadian

space surveillance Space domain awareness is the study and monitoring of satellites orbiting the earth. It involves the detection, tracking, cataloging and identification of artificial objects, i.e. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentatio ...

satellite which was launched in 2013. Sapphire was commissioned and integrated by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) based on an SSTL-150 bus produced by Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and an optical payload produced by

COM DEV International Honeywell Aerospace (formerly COM DEV International) is a satellite technology, space sciences, and telecommunications company based in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. The company has branches and offices in Ottawa, the United States, the United Kin ...

Details

Sapphire, Canada's first military satellite, is a small spacecraft designed to monitor space debris and satellites within an orbit 3,728 to 24,855 miles (6,000 to 40,000 kilometres) above Earth. The satellite has been providing data to the

United States Space Surveillance Network The United States Space Surveillance Network (SSN) detects, tracks, catalogs and identifies artificial objects orbiting Earth, e.g. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation debris. The system is the responsibility of Uni ...

since January 2014. The satellite has a mass of , and carries a

three-mirror anastigmat A three-mirror anastigmat is an anastigmat telescope built with three curved mirrors, enabling it to minimize all three main optical aberrations – spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism. This is primarily used to enable wide fields of view, ...

to track artificial objects in

medium Earth orbit A medium Earth orbit (MEO) is an geocentric orbit, Earth-centered orbit with an altitude above a low Earth orbit (LEO) and below a high Earth orbit (HEO) – between above sea level.

to geosynchronous Earth orbit.

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

's Ball Lock separation system IBL-298 was used for separating the satellite. The optical system is based on the design of the Space-Based Visible (SBV) sensor. This telescope was developed for the

Midcourse Space Experiment The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) is a Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) satellite experiment (unmanned space mission) to map bright infrared sources in space. MSX offered the first system demonstration of technology in space t ...

. The Charge-coupled device(CCD) used is a CCD47-20bi CCD sensor. Following completion of its operational testing and certification, Sapphire began its five-year operational mission November 13, 2013.

Launch

Sapphire was launched by the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

(ISRO), using a

PSLV-CA The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites ...

rocket, flight C20. The launch occurred at 12:31 on 25 February 2013, from the First Launch Pad at the

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range - SHAR) is a rocket launch centre (spaceport) operated by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. Sriharikota R ...

. Sapphire was a secondary payload on the rocket, the primary payload being the

SARAL SARAL (''S''atellite with ''AR''gos and ''AL''tiKa) is a cooperative altimetry technology mission of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES). SARAL performs altimetric measurements designed to s ...

oceanography satellite. NEOSSat,

UniBRITE-1 UniBRITE-1 is, along with TUGSAT-1, one of the first two Austrian satellites to be launched. Along with TUGSAT, it operates as part of the BRIght Target Explorer constellation of satellites. The two spacecraft were launched aboard the same rocke ...

TUGSAT-1 TUGSAT-1, also known as BRITE-Austria and CanX-3B, is the first Austrian satellite. It is an optical astronomy spacecraft operated by the Graz University of Technology as part of the international BRIght-star Target Explorer programme. Details ...

AAUSAT3 AAUSat-3, (Aalborg University CubeSat-3), is the third CubeSat built and operated by students from the Aalborg University in Denmark. It was launched on 25 February 2013 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India on a Polar Satellite Launch ...

and STRaND-1 were also launched aboard the same rocket.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2013 Satellites of Canada Spacecraft launched in 2013

Details

Launch

See also

References