WIRE

Also called Wide-Field Infrared Explorer and SMEX 5

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General

Designation	25646 / 99011A
Launch date	5 Mar 1999
Country of origin	United States
Mission	Scientific: IR astronomy
Perigee/Apogee	539/587 km
Inclination	97.5°
Period
Launch vehicle	Pegasus XL #26

The cover of Wire was ejected too early (3 days early?) and caused cryogen to leak out. This was caused by faulty electronics which caused the ejection of the cover. The satellite lost proper stabilization after launch. All the cryogen was lost, primary mission failed. The spacecraft is now to be used as an engineering testbed to evaluate advanced attitude control systems, communications, and data handling and operations. It is also used to measure variation in luminosity of stars.

The satellite was not insured.

WIRE would have used a single cryogenically cooled infrared telescope to survey selected target areas in two infrared bands. WIRE was specifically designed to detect the maximum number of high-red shift starburst galaxies using the smallest, simplest instrument possible. The WIRE survey would have been over 500 times fainter than the IRAS Faint Source Survey at 12 and 25 µm.

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End of life

Out of service
Cause
Decay	10 May 2011

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External resources

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/wire/

http://sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov/smex/wire/
sat-index articles

Technical data

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Specifications

Prime contractor
Platform
Mass at launch	254 kg
Mass in orbit
Dimension
Solar array
Stabilization
DC power	160 W
Design lifetime	4 months

Telemetry: 2215 MHz (realtime: 23.4375 kbps, playback: 1.125 or 2.25 Mbps)
Command: 2039.65 MHz (2 kbps)

Telescope: 30 cm Cassegrain

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