Design
TacSat-3 uses a standard satellite bus developed and provided by ATK. The payload consists of a two mirror Ritchey–Chrétien telescope plus correction optics, with a focus device incorporated in the secondary mirror unit, and with a slit Offner spectrometer. The spectrometer uses the ARTEMIS hyperspectral imaging sensor (HSI), which is a single HgCdTe Focal Plane Array covering the entire V/NIR/SWIR spectrum from 400 nm to 2500 nm at a uniform resolution of 5 nm. ARTEMIS measures first the spectral information at each point on the ground in 400 spectral channels. HSI data cubes obtained by ARTEMIS are then handled by a reprogrammable digital signal processor with 16 GB data storage capability to generate on-board products and for in-theater downlink. TacSat-3's main focus is land-based HSI. According to Peter Wegner from the Operationally Responsive Space Office, TacSat-3 cost US$90 million
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