DoD experiments on commercial spacecraft

The Government has greatly expanded its knowledge and use of commercially hosted payloads within the developmental testing and technology maturation branch of space acquisition. In June 2008, the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) at Los Angeles Air Force Base awarded a firm fixed price (FFP) contract with Americom Government Services (AGS) to host or ldquoridesharerdquo a developmental Government sensor on a commercial spacecraft. For the purposes of this paper, a ldquoridesharerdquo is defined as an experimental payload hosted on a commercial bus. The Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP) Flight Demonstration Program was designed to leverage commercial spacecraft practices to meet an already ongoing spacecraft schedule with a launch window of May-September 2010. This experiment supports next-generation infrared (IR) sensor system development and is essential to reducing technology risk for the Third Generation Infrared Surveillance (3GIRS) system. 3GIRS is the planned follow-on system to the current Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS). In addition to maturing system technology, the success of the CHIRP program will be a significant first step towards validating the viability and effectiveness of using commercially hosted payloads within the development and operational testing niche of Government space programs.