A Mission Revived: Lessons Learned from Starshine 4 Re-design, Assembly, Test, and Integration

In 2002 an effort between Project Starshine, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and students from across the world worked to design, build, and test the Starshine 4 satellite. The purpose of the mission was twofold; engage students in a flight mission and measure upper atmospheric density. The mission was manifested on the Space Shuttle [STS-114] but before Starshine 4 was launched the Shuttle was retired and the spacecraft was put into storage at Planetary Systems Corporation (PSC). In 2017 Principal investigator and founder, Gil Moore, negotiated an opportunity to launch a newly developed launch vehicle. Mr. Moore reached out to PSC for help. Due to experimental launch vehicle constraints only a minimal on-orbit life was available. Orbit lifetime is critical for students to observe the spacecraft and take data. To increase orbital life, engineers increased the satellite’s mass to maximize the ballistic coefficient. The structure was redesigned to support a traditional ring-based separation system. Starshine spins slowly and requires critical separation dynamics. Engineers designed custom spring assemblies to enable tip off rates. Verifying separation dynamics is also very challenging but the separation adapter enabled streamlined testing. The integration process was taught to the launch vehicle’s integration and test staff in a fraction of the time required for traditional integration. Flight hardware integration was completed in less than 3 hours. This paper will go into details about the lessons learned preparing an 18-year-old spacecraft back to flight readiness in addition to the integration process