NASA's FASTSAT (Credit: NASA)

DYNETICS PR — Dynetics announced today that FASTSAT-HSV01 has successfully completed scheduled science operations for multiple payloads. Mission operations are managed and controlled at NASA’s Huntsville Operations Support Center in Huntsville, Ala. FASTSAT is a commercial satellite developed by Dynetics in partnership with the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation (VCSI) and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville for the Department of Defense Space Test Program (DoD STP).

“Dynetics has provided spacecraft analysis support throughout the development and operations phase, including command development and verification, telemetry data analysis, planning and software updates. Significant science data has been collected through excellent teamwork with NASA’s mission operations team and the principal investigators,” said Mike Graves, Dynetics FASTSAT project manager.

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NASA MISSION UPDATES

On Saturday, Nov. 20, FASTSAT made contact with ground stations at Svalbard, Norway and Kodiak, Alaska, and received commands from and communicated with mission controllers at the small satellite command center located at the Huntsville Operations and Science Control Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The satellite continues to function nominally as the commissioning phase of the mission continues.

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A Minotaur IV rocket is set to launch a set of innovative nanosats from the Kodiak Launch Complex on Friday evening. The launch is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 19, at 7:24 p.m. CST. The launch can be viewed on the web at this page, https://www.nasa.gov/fastsat, on Friday, Nov. 19, starting at 7 p.m. CST.

Below are NASA’s descriptions of three of the satellites to be launched: FASTSAT, NanoSail-D, and O/OREOS.

FASTSAT

NASA’s Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT, will carry six small payloads to low Earth orbit, demonstrating a critical ability to provide low-cost and rapid response opportunities for scientific and technical payloads to get to space. FASTSAT is NASA’s first microsatellite designed to create a capability that increases opportunities for secondary, scientific and technology payloads, or rideshares, to be flown at lower cost than previously possible. It serves as a bus or platform that puts scientific research on the affordable fast track for governmental, academic and industry researchers.

The FASTSAT mission is a joint activity between NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense Space Test Program. The satellite was designed, developed and tested at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., in partnership with the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation and Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville.

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