There is an undoubted benefit of having a machine relaying signals between two locations that would normally be out of range of each other. So the boffins at the KSC built a vehicle that would do this from space. A small communications station was constructed on the other side of the ocean to the Space Center. If all went to plan, Mission Control and the communications outpost would be able to send data via the satellite.
'This is an exciting mission,' said one of the scientists at a press conference. 'The thought of eventually having world-wide communications from one location would have limitless benefits. But as well as this, the signals will go beyond our world to control future space missions.'
The probe is named StarComm I. The satellite successfully reached orbit using the Houndstone I launch vehicle. Later, The S2-4A second-stage booster fired it's engine a second time to change the orbital altitude to 300km. The on-board computer was then programmed to ignite the rocket motor a third time to circularise the orbit, but failed to do this. When the probe was back within communications range of mission control, the computer was reset. However, the rocket still failed to restart. A manual firing was attempted and carried out successfully, although the mission was now delayed by several hours.
After a systems check of the probe, the second-stage was jettisoned. The probe then carried out two orbital corrections under it's own on-board thrusters. This was a first for a probe to have it's own propellant system. The test signal between KSC and the communications outpost was tried. StarComm relayed the signal successfully and the mission was declared a success.
Artists impression of StarComm in Orbit
An identical StarComm II is scheduled to launch soon, and both satellites are planned to remain in orbit until superseded.
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