ARGOS (satellite)

ARGOS (satellite)

The Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS) was launched on 23 Feb 1999 from SLC-2W, Vandenberg AFB, CA, atop a Boeing Delta II (7920-10) (List of Delta II launches). Construction of the spacecraft bus and integration of the satellite's nine payloads was accomplished by Boeing at their Seal Beach, CA facility. The program was funded and led by the DoD's Space Test Program as mission P91-1 (the first mission contract let in 1991). The nine payloads were research and development missions by nine separate researchers. The $220M mission was operated by Air Force Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center's Test and Evaluation Directorate (now Space Test and Development Wing) from their RDT&E Support Complex (RSC) at Kirtland AFB, NM. ARGOS was the first mission operated 100% from the new state-of-the-art, commercial-off-the-shelf Kirtland facility; all previous SMC satellite missions had been operated in total or at least in part from the preceding center at Onizuka AFS, CA.