ACRIMSAT Mission Overview

The ACRIMSAT Mission will fly an EOS ACRIM III instrument on a spacecraft called ACRIMSAT. The spacecraft will be launched as a secondary payload on a Taurus launch vehicle. The purpose of the mission is to monitor total solar irradiance (TSI) as part the U.S. Global Climate Research Program.

The mission is funded as part of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) program and is managed by the Earth Science Programs Office at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The Principal Investigator is Dr. Richard Willson of Columbia University.

The ACRIM III instrument is being built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). JPL will manage the subcontract with Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) to build the ACRIMSAT spacecraft. The Taurus launch vehicle is built by OSC. Oversight of the launch vehicle will be provided by the Orbital Launch Services office at GSFC.

ACRIMSAT is scheduled to launch in December 1999. Once the spacecraft is launched, it will be operated and checked out by OSC personnel using the mission-dedicated ground station located at the Table Mountain Observatory (TMO). When the spacecraft and instrument have been checked out in flight, an Operational Readiness Review (ORR) will be conducted and ACRIMSAT operation will be turned over to JPL. Once this has been accomplished, JPL will collect data at the TMO ground station and transmit the data to the Principal Investigator and the Langley EOS Data Analysis and Archive Center for analysis and data archive.