The US Air Force (USAF) is planning to conduct a flight demonstration of the commercially hosted infrared payload (CHIRP) follow-on technology in 2016, Space and Missile Systems Center spokesman Hien Vu has revealed.
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In an email to SpaceNews, Vu said the service is currently pursuing wide field-of-view options to include another flight demonstration in 2016 to inform future architecture decisions.
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”The Air Force is in the early design phase for multiple payload designs,” Vu said.
A request for information (RFI) was issued by USAF for a prototype wide-field-of-view staring sensor payload that will be hosted on a yet-to-be-selected commercial communications satellite, while a formal request for proposals (RFP) is anticipated in March 2014, according to the news agency.
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The air force had decommissioned the CHIRP sensor in December last year, following 27 months of successful operation in orbit, due to increasing budgetary constraints.
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The Leidos-built sensor was launched in September 2011, as a hosted payload on an SES-2 telecommunications satellite built by Orbital Sciences, and had collected more than 300 terabytes of overhead persistent infrared (OPIR) data, allowing for analysis of more than 70 missile- and rocket-launch events, and 150 other infrared (IR) events.
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Originally designed for a one-year mission life, the payload successfully completed its initial demonstration period in July 2012, but the contract was extended three times to include additional demonstrations of the sensor’s wide field-of-view staring capabilities.
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Vu said the decision to decommission the sensor generated $36m in savings for the air force.
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The CHIRP sensor is based on a 2,000 x 2,000 pixel staring array, and also features a fixed telescope that can view one quarter of the Earth from geosynchronous orbit.