The KySat Space Express Sub-Orbital Mission Summary

• Main Authors: Doering, T.J., Hishmeh, S.F., Dodson, T.L., White, A.-R., Eluru, P.R., Padmanabhan, P., Gailey, M.B., Bux, K.J., Schulte, M.A., Crowe, A.F., Hutchison, W.C., Gleim, C.N., McClure, D.T., Malphrus, B.K., Kruth, J.A., Lumpp, J.E.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Land surface temperature; Missiles; Moon; Packaging; Payloads; Rockets; Satellite ground stations; Space missions; Telemetry; Testing
• ISSN: 1095-323X; 2996-2358
• DOI: 10.1109/AERO.2008.4526292

KySat space express was a rapid turn around, suborbital access to space experiment launched in December 2007. The Space Express mission was designed to help test subsystems and processes being developed for future orbital KySat missions. A primary goal of the KySat consortium is to facilitate inexpensive and rapid access to space for small payloads. The space express mission was launched from the white sands missile range on a lunar rocket and rover shadow IB launch system. The space express payload consisted of telemetry package that gathered temperature, pressure, and mission time on board the rocket. The telemetry gathered onboard the rocket was transmitted to three redundant ground stations using the VHF amateur ham radio band. While the launch system suffered a failure during the boost phase, the payload functioned as designed. This paper overviews the design and development of the space express mission.