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.