MUBLCOM

MUBLCOM
Type:	Communications satellite
Country:	United States
Operator:	US Army
COSPAR-ID :	1999-026B
Mission dates
Begin:	May 18, 1999, 05:09 UTC
Starting place:	Vandenberg Air Force Base
Launcher:	Pegasus-XL HAPS F27
Status:	in orbit
Orbit data
Rotation time :	100 min
Orbit inclination :	97.8 °
Apogee height :	780 km
Perigee height :	775 km

Mublcom ( English Mu ltiple Paths, B eyond- L ine-of-Sight Com munications ) is an American military communications satellite , which served the testing of mobile communication links between military units. The satellite was funded by the military research agency DARPA and manufactured by Orbital Sciences . It was based on the same Microstar satellite bus used in the Orbcomm satellites. MUBLCOM is operated by the United States Army Communications-Electronics Command .

MUBLCOM was launched into space on May 18, 1999 , together with the TERRIERS research satellite . For this purpose, a Pegasus XL HAPS rocket was dropped in the Point Arguello Western Air Drop Zone off the California coast . The TriStar carrier aircraft had taken off from Vandenberg Air Force Base .

In addition to the communications payload, the satellite carries a number of laser reflectors to serve as a target satellite for the DART satellite. This was supposed to test an autonomous rendezvous procedure and use laser rangefinders to determine the distance to the target satellite. Coupling of the satellites was not planned. On April 15, 2005, the DART satellite collided with MUBLCOM while trying to test this approximation method. Both satellites were not damaged.

Web links

• NASA: Press kit for the DART mission ( Memento from June 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (English, PDF; 1.7 MB)
• NASA: about the collision (English, PDF; 89 kB)
• MUBLCOM on Gunter's Space Page (English)
• Microstar in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MUBLCOM in the NSSDCA Master Catalog , accessed on August 20, 2012 (English).