The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX)

The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite, funded and managed by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) is a long-duration, observatory-style measurement platform that is collecting several terabytes of high-quality data on Earth, earthlimb, and celestial backgrounds, ICBM-style targets, and resident space objects. MSX was launched into a 900 km polar orbit (99.3 degrees inclination) on April 24, 1996. It includes a suite of state-of-the-art sensors, including a cryogenic infrared five-color high-spatial-resolution scanning radiometer and a six channel Fourier-transform spectrometer (SPIRIT III), visible and ultraviolet imagers and spectrographic imagers (UVISI), a space-based visible camera (SBV) an on-board signal and data processor (OSDP), and a set of contamination instruments. The optical sensors cover the spectrum from the far ultraviolet through the long-wave infrared (110 nm to 28 μm). The principal focus of MSX is to collect highly-calibrated, certified phenomenology data in support of ballistic missile defense objectives. MSX is capable of collecting well-calibrated data in support of a variety of civilian science objectives in Earth and atmospheric remote sensing and astronomy. A large number of successful space surveillance experiments have been performed. This paper reviews the mission objectives, describes the spacecraft and instrumentation and the basis of their design, and summarizes significant observations. It also outlines the approach to reducing, analyzing, and archiving the large database that will result from several years of data collection