Orbital Glory - Manual (Page 2)

Technicians make final preparations to the Glory spacecraft at
Vandenberg Air Force Base prior to launch
Specifications and Salient Features
Spacecraft
Launch Mass: 528 kg (1,164 lb.)
Redundancy: Redundant
Solar Arrays:
Bi-axial articulated, one body-
mounted panel
Stability: 3-axis, stabilized, zero momentum
Propulsion: 45 kg, monopropellant blowdown,
4-4N thrusters
Power: 766 W total from arrays and body-
mounted panel
Mission Life: 3 years (goal of 5 years or more)
Orbit: 705 km, sun-synchronous, circular –
low-Earth orbit (LEO)
Instruments
Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS)
The APS was designed to collect global aerosol data
based on measurements of light reflected within the
solar reflective spectral region of Earth’s atmosphere.
Since clouds can have a significant impact on the quality
of these measurements, an onboard cloud camera
would be used to distinguish between clear and cloud
filled scenes. A three-year mission life (five-year or more
goal) was planned to provide a minimum time period to
observe seasonal and regional trends and characterize the
evolution of aerosols during different climate events, such
as El Niño, volcanic eruptions, etc.
Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM)
Developed and provided by the University of Colorado’s
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the
TIM instrument was designed to collect high accuracy, high
precision measurements of total solar irradiance (TSI), or
the amount of solar radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere
over a period of time. The TIM is a heritage-design
instrument that was originally flown on Orbital’s SORCE
satellite, launched in January 2003.
Launch
Launch Vehicle: Taurus XL
Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA
Date: March 4, 2011
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Glory
Key Mission Partners
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO – Instrument Development,
TIM Science
Orbital Sciences Corporation
Dulles, VA; Chandler, AZ; Vandenberg AFB, CA – Spacecraft Bus Development,
Satellite Integration and Testing, Launch Vehicle Integration, Mission
Operations and Control, Taurus Launch Vehicle
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Greenbelt, MD – Project Management, Science Data Archives
GSFC Institute for Space Studies (GISS)
Greenbelt, MD – Instrument Development, APS Science