Ball Aerospace has completed the preshipment review of the the first spacecraft for US Defense’s space test programme standard interface vehicle (STP-SIV) programme, STPSat-2.
Ball will deliver up to six vehicles for the USAF space development and test wing’s space development group at Kirtland Air Force Base, under a 2006 contract.
The project develops a common spacecraft bus with a standard payload interface to accelerate Department of Defense (DoD) space technology.
STP-SIV is capable of supporting a range of DoD experimental and risk reduction payloads and multiple launch vehicles and can accommodate up to four independent payloads, along with separate power and data interface for each.
The pre-shipment review included assembly and performance testing of the standard vehicle and payload interface as well as functional and environmental testing of the STPSat-2 payload suite.
The payload suite comprised the Air Force Research Laboratory’s space phenomenology experiment and ONR’s ocean data telemetry microsat link.
The STPSat-2 is expected to lift off aboard a Minotaur IV rocket in the second quarter of 2010.
