TacSat-3 to Begin Experiments

The Tactical Satellite-3 launched in May has completed critical calibration and is now “focused on conducting experiments and supporting demonstrations,” said Dr. Thomas Cooley, TacSat-3 program manager with Air Force Research Lab’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M. TacSat-3 entered its calibration phase in June and would have finished up sooner, but Cooley said, “We opted to continue the calibration phase longer than normal to work through the various tactical modes and fine tune the primary payload’s sensor.” Now, he said, the program will concentrate on employing the small satellite’s three payloads to provide tactical data to warfighters. (Kirtland report by Michael Kleiman)