Lacrosse (satellite) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the 2009 Lunar Impactor Mission designed to crash into the moon, see LCROSS

LCROSS

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the moon. The main LCROSS mission objective was to explore the presence of water ice...

.

Lacrosse and Onyx are the code names for the United States' National Reconnaissance Office

National Reconnaissance Office

The National Reconnaissance Office , located in Chantilly, Virginia, is one of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. It designs, builds, and operates the spy satellites of the United States government.-Mission:...

terrestrial radar imaging reconnaissance satellite. While not officially confirmed by the NRO

National Reconnaissance Office

or anybody in the U.S. government, for a long time, there was and is widespread evidence to confirm its existence, including one NASA website. In July 2008, the NRO itself declassified the existence of their SAR satellite constellation.

According to former Director of Central Intelligence Admiral Stansfield Turner

Stansfield Turner

Stansfield M. Turner is a retired Admiral and former Director of Central Intelligence. He is currently a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Policy....

, Lacrosse had its origins in 1978 when a dispute between the Central Intelligence Agency

Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

and the U.S. Air Force as to whether a combined optical/radar reconnaissance satellite (the CIA proposal) or a radar-only one (the USAF proposal) should be developed was resolved in favor of the USAF.

Lacrosse uses Synthetic Aperture Radar

Synthetic aperture radar

Synthetic-aperture radar is a form of radar whose defining characteristic is its use of relative motion between an antenna and its target region to provide distinctive long-term coherent-signal variations that are exploited to obtain finer spatial resolution than is possible with conventional...

as its prime imaging instrument. It is able to see through cloud cover and also has some ability to penetrate soil, though there have been more powerful instruments deployed in space for this specific purpose. Early versions are believed to have used the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) to relay imagery to a ground station at White Sands

White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range is a rocket range of almost in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR includes the and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. There are some indications that other relay satellites may now be available for use with Lacrosse. The name "Lacrosse" is used to refer to all variants, while "Onyx" is sometimes used to refer to the three newer units.

Unit costs (including launch) in 1990 dollars are estimated to be in the range of US $ 0.5 to 1.0 billion (inflation adjusted US$ to billion in ).

Future

It has been said that the B-2

B-2 Spirit

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is an American heavy bomber with low observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses and deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber has a crew of two and can drop up to eighty -class JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen ...

bomber was originally intended to use directly down-linked targeting data from Lacrosse satellites in order to aid it in its role of hunting down and destroying Soviet mobile ICBM launchers. It had been anticipated that the Lacrosse satellites would be replaced by the radar component of the Future Imagery Architecture

Future Imagery Architecture

Future Imagery Architecture was a program to design a new generation of optical and radar imaging US reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office . In 2005 NRO director Donald Kerr recommended the project's termination, and the optical component of the program was finally...

(FIA). The severe program problems encountered by FIA in the early 2000s appear to have led to off-loading of radar reconnaissance to the Space Based Radar, later simplified to Space Radar, with initial launch anticipated around 2015. This program itself was axed by Congress late 2008. The launch of NROL-41 (USA 215) in September 2010 has all orbital characteristics of a radar remote sensing platform (see FIA

Future Imagery Architecture

) and could be the first of a Lacrosse follow-up program. Its orbit is a retrograde version of the "frozen" Lacrosse orbit, the choice for a retrograde orbit itself indicating a SAR role.

Launches

Five Lacrosse spacecraft have been launched, with three currently in orbit

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

Lacrosse 1: "Lacrosse 3000"
- Launch: December 2, 1988
- Platform: Space Shuttle
  Space Shuttle
  The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
  
  Atlantis
  Space Shuttle Atlantis
  The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States...
  
  , mission STS-27
  STS-27
  STS-27 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission, the 27th shuttle mission overall and the third flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Launching on 2 December 1988 on a four-day mission, it was the second shuttle flight after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986. STS-27 carried a classified payload for...
- Pad: Kennedy Space Center
  Kennedy Space Center
  The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
  
  , Launch Complex 39B
- Orbital apogee/perigee/inclination: 447 × 437 km @ 57.0°
- Orbital period: 93.4 minutes
- De-orbit: 1997
- Status: Fulfilled mission, deorbited.
- NORAD
  North American Aerospace Defense Command
  North American Aerospace Defense Command is a joint organization of Canada and the United States that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and defense for the two countries. Headquarters NORAD is located at Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, Colorado...
  
  Number: 19671(USA 34) COSPAR ID: 1988-106B
Lacrosse 2:
- Launch: March 8, 1991
- Platform: Titan IV-A
  Titan IV
  The Titan IV family of space boosters were used by the U.S. Air Force. They were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. At the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the "largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force."The...
- Pad: Vandenberg AFB, Space Launch Complex 4
  Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 4
  Space Launch Complex 4 , was a launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, used by Atlas and Titan rockets between 1963 and 2005. It consisted of two separate launch pads, SLC-4W and SLC-4E, which were formerly designated PALC2-3 and PALC2-4 respectively. Both pads were originally built for use by...
- Orbital apogee/perigee/inclination: 662 × 420 km @ 68.0°
- De-orbit: March 26, 2011 http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2011/04/lacrosse-2-is-no-more.html
- NORAD Number: 21147 (USA 69) 1991-017A
- Notes: The first West Coast
  West Coast of the United States
  West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
  
  launch of a Titan IV.
Lacrosse 3:
- Launch: October 24, 1997
- Platform: Titan IV-A
  Titan IV
  The Titan IV family of space boosters were used by the U.S. Air Force. They were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. At the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the "largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force."The...
- Pad: Vandenberg AFB, Space Launch Complex 4
  Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 4
  Space Launch Complex 4 , was a launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, used by Atlas and Titan rockets between 1963 and 2005. It consisted of two separate launch pads, SLC-4W and SLC-4E, which were formerly designated PALC2-3 and PALC2-4 respectively. Both pads were originally built for use by...
- Orbital apogee/perigee/inclination: 679 × 666 km @ 57.0°
- Status: In active service
- NORAD Number: 25017 (USA 133) 1997-064A
- Notes: Replacement for Lacrosse 1.

Lacrosse 4:
- Launch: August 17, 2000
- Platform: Titan IV-B
  Titan IV
  The Titan IV family of space boosters were used by the U.S. Air Force. They were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. At the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the "largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force."The...
- Pad: Vandenberg AFB, Space Launch Complex 4
  Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 4
  Space Launch Complex 4 , was a launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, used by Atlas and Titan rockets between 1963 and 2005. It consisted of two separate launch pads, SLC-4W and SLC-4E, which were formerly designated PALC2-3 and PALC2-4 respectively. Both pads were originally built for use by...
- Orbital apogee/perigee/inclination: 695 × 689 km @ 68.0°
- Mass: 14,500 kg
- Status: In active service
- NORAD Number: 26473 (USA 152) 2000-047A
- Notes: After initial orbit, minor adjustments were made, sending it to 675 × 572 @ 68.1°. An Onyx variant.
Lacrosse 5:
- Launch: April 30, 2005
- Platform: Titan IV-B
  Titan IV
  The Titan IV family of space boosters were used by the U.S. Air Force. They were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. At the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the "largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force."The...
- Pad: Cape Canaveral
  Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
  Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Command's 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Located on Cape Canaveral in the state of Florida, CCAFS is the primary launch head of America's Eastern Range with four launch pads...
- Orbital apogee/perigee/inclination: 718 × 712 km @ 57.0°
- Mass: 16,000 kg
- Status: In active service
- NORAD Number: 28646 (USA 182) 2005-016A
- Notes: Lacrosse 5 appears to differ somewhat from the previous four satellites. As determined by amateur observers, there are subtle differences in its orbit and its color is somewhat whiter than the distinct red-orange tint of the earlier ones. Most strikingly, it sometimes fades from brightness to invisibility within the space of a few seconds while still in full sunlight. (The amateurs call this rapid fade its "disappearing trick".)

The Lacrosses move in orbital planes either 68° or 57° inclined. These orbital inclinations of 68° and 57°, combined with their altitude give the satellites a complete view of the earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

's surface, including the poles

Geographical pole

A geographical pole is either of the two points—the north pole and the south pole—on the surface of a rotating planet where the axis of rotation meets the surface of the body...

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Future

Launches

See also

External links