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Lewis (SSTI 1)

Lewis [NASA]

Lewis was one of two missions selected under NASA's SSTI (Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative) program to demonstrate advanced spacecraft technologies (11 July 1994). Lewis' payload consisted of:

  • Earth imaging Hyperspectral Imager (HSI) with 384 bands (0.4 - 2.5 �m, 30�m pixels, 7.7 �km swath, panchromatic: 0.45 - 0.75 �m, 5�m pixels, 13�km swath),
  • Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA), from NASA GSFC (1.0 - 2.5 �m, 256 channels, 300�m pixels, 77�km swath). and
  • Ultraviolet Cosmic Background (UCB), from UC Berkely (35 - 85 nm).

After reaching orbit, the satellite spun out of control and was losing power just days after launch because an attitude-control thruster remained in the on position longer than planned, so that Lewis could not manouver to its operational orbit and decayed soon after.

Nation: USA
Type / Application: Earth observing
Operator: NASA
Contractors: TRW
Equipment: HSI, LEISA, UCB
Configuration: T200B
Propulsion:
Power: 2 deployable solar arrays, batteries
Lifetime: 3 years (required 1 year)
Mass: 288�kg
Orbit: 523�km�נ523�km, 97.5�, (planned); 124�km�נ134�km, 97.5�
Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
Lewis (SSTI 1) 1997-044A 23.08.1997 Va SLC-6 Athena-1

References:

  • NSSDC Master Catalog: SSTI-LEWIS
  • NASA Mission and Spacecraft Library: SSTI
Further SSTI missions: