TACSAT-2: PATHFINDER FOR A CLOSE SPACE SUPPORT ASSET

With the launch of TacSat-2, the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) community had its first on-orbit asset and opportunity to prove or disprove the premise that small, inexpensive, and quickly constructed spacecraft could perform useful operational missions when needed and for as long as needed. All of the components of the complex TacSat-2 system had to work together to answer the basic questions, “In a crisis, can a lab-developed spacecraft and ground architecture competently perform the mission of systems that cost twenty times the price and take four times as long to develop? Moreover, can this system actually improve on the responsiveness of National Systems to a certain set of underserved Operational customers?