The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

280 Milstar (Military Strategic and Tactical Relay)
as well as satellite technology experiments such as
advanced solar arrays. (See table, “Mightysat Launches.”)
Milstar (Military Strategic and Tactical Relay)
A series of advanced American military satellites
designed to provide survivable, global jam-resistant communications
for the command and control of strategic
and tactical forces through all levels of conflict. Each
Milstar satellite serves as a smart switchboard in space by
directing traffic from ground terminal to ground terminal
anywhere on Earth. Since the satellite actually processes
the communications signal and can link with other Milstar
satellites through crosslinks, the need for groundcontrolled
switching is much reduced. An operational
Milstar constellation is supposed to consist of four satellites,
positioned around the Earth in geosynchronous
orbits, but the program has been plagued with fiscal and
technical problems. The first and second Milstar 1 satellites
were launched in 1994 and 1995. However, the first
of a new generation of Milstar satellites was placed in a
useless orbit because of a flight software error in its Cen-
MIDAS Spacecraft
Mass: about 2,000 kg
Launch
Spacecraft Date Vehicle Site Orbit
MIDAS 1 Feb. 26, 1960 Atlas-Agena A Cape Canaveral Launch failure
MIDAS 2 May 24, 1960 Atlas-Agena A Cape Canaveral 473 × 494 km × 33.0°
MIDAS 3 Jul. 12, 1961 Atlas-Agena B Vandenberg 3,343 × 3,540 km × 91.1°
MIDAS 4 Oct. 21, 1961 Atlas-Agena B Vandenberg 3,482 × 3,763 km × 95.9°
MIDAS 5 Apr. 9, 1962 Atlas-Agena B Vandenberg 2,784 × 3,405 km × 86.7°
MIDAS 6 Dec. 17, 1962 Atlas-Agena B Vandenberg Launch failure
MIDAS 7 May 9, 1963 Atlas-Agena B Vandenberg 3,607 × 3,676 km × 87.3°
MIDAS 8 Jun. 13, 1963 Atlas-Agena B Vandenberg Launch failure
MIDAS 9 Jul. 18, 1963 Atlas-Agena B Vandenberg 3,672 × 3,725 km × 88.4°
I. MIDAS 1 Jun. 9, 1966 Atlas-Agena D Vandenberg 154 × 3,678 km × 90.0°
I. MIDAS 2 Aug. 19, 1966 Atlas-Agena D Vandenberg 3,658 × 3,708 km × 89.7°
I. MIDAS 3 Oct. 5, 1966 Atlas-Agena D Vandenberg 3,656 × 3,721 km × 90.0°
Mightysat Launches
taur upper stage during launch on April 30, 1999. With
the satellite costing about $800 million, and the launcher
a further $433 million, this is believed to be the most
expensive unmanned loss in the history of Cape
Canaveral launch operations. The second Milstar 2 was
successfully launched on February 27, 2001, and the third
on January 14, 2002. The final Milstar—the sixth overall—
is scheduled for launch in 2003.
minisat
A satellite with an on-orbit mass of 100 to 1,000 kg. See
satellite mass categories.
Minisat
A small, multipurpose satellite bus developed by INTA,
the Spanish space agency. Minisat is intended to form
the basis for several series of satellites, including ones for
scientific applications (such as astronomy and microgravity),
Earth observations, and communications experiments.
Minisat-1—the only Minisat launch as of
mid-2002—carried an extreme ultraviolet spectrograph, a
Spacecraft Date
Launch
Vehicle Site Orbit Mass (kg)
Mightysat 1 Oct. 29, 1998 Shuttle STS-88 Cape Canaveral 381 × 395 km × 51.6° 320
Mightysat 2 Jul. 19, 2000 Minotaur Vandenberg 547 × 581 km × 97.8° 130