Stex

Space Technology EXperiments

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General

Designation	25489 / 98055A
Launch date	3 Oct 1998
Country of origin	United States
Mission	Military: technology
Perigee/Apogee
Inclination
Period
Launch vehicle	Taurus #3

It carries experimental solar arrays and batteries and a 6 km tether. STEX is connected to ATEX thanks to this tether. The deployement failed on 16 Jan 1999: only 22 m were deployed because the automatic safety separation was triggered by a dangerous separation angle.

The STEX satellite was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver) for the National Reconnaissance Office. STEX's main experiments are provided by the Naval Research Lab, including Hall Effect electric thrusters derived from Russian technology and a 6 km tether experiment, a follow-on to the earlier TIPS satellite. STEX also carries experimental solar arrays and batteries.

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Sub satellites

USA 141 / ATEX (25615 / 98055C)

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External resources

sat-index articles

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