Location
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Enterprise Rooms
Start Date
25-4-1996 1:00 PM
End Date
25-4-1996 4:00 PM
Description
Soon after the first space launches, it became apparent that space systems could provide unique services; but how would new space technologies and concepts be developed and tested? In 1966, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) established the Space Test Program (STP) for which the Department of the Air Force was named the executive agent. STP is chartered to provide space flight opportunities for DoD relevant science and technology experiments lacking other means of space flight. From 1967 to the present, STP has provided space flight for more than 370 research and development payloads in a cost effective manner using various methods including: unique satellites on dedicated expendable rockets, the Space Shuttle, and secondary opportunities on larger missions. STP has enhanced DoD operability by: improving operational and pre-operational designs, applying needed capabilities prior to the existence of operational systems, reducing the development risk for pre-operational payloads, increasing knowledge of the space environment and discovering unanticipated benefits. The execution of the STP mission has been shown to be a better, faster, cheaper means of enhancing DoD space technologies.
Paper Session III-B - The Space Test Program, A Case for Dedicated Research, Development, Test and Evaluation in Space
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Enterprise Rooms
Soon after the first space launches, it became apparent that space systems could provide unique services; but how would new space technologies and concepts be developed and tested? In 1966, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) established the Space Test Program (STP) for which the Department of the Air Force was named the executive agent. STP is chartered to provide space flight opportunities for DoD relevant science and technology experiments lacking other means of space flight. From 1967 to the present, STP has provided space flight for more than 370 research and development payloads in a cost effective manner using various methods including: unique satellites on dedicated expendable rockets, the Space Shuttle, and secondary opportunities on larger missions. STP has enhanced DoD operability by: improving operational and pre-operational designs, applying needed capabilities prior to the existence of operational systems, reducing the development risk for pre-operational payloads, increasing knowledge of the space environment and discovering unanticipated benefits. The execution of the STP mission has been shown to be a better, faster, cheaper means of enhancing DoD space technologies.
Comments
Payload Development and Deployment
Session Chairman: Christopher A. Waln, USAF, Director of Developmental Planning for Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center
Session Organizer: Christ Cook