The Starshine Satellite: From Concept to Delivery in Four Months

Engineers at the Naval Research Laboratory\u27s Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST) designed, built, and tested the Starshine satellite to meet Space Shuttle Hitchhiker Payload specifications. In a period of only four months after being provided the project requirements from the Starshine project director, Starshine was ready for delivery to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for STS 96. GSFC integrated the satellite with its Hitchhiker canister and installed it in the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center. On May 27, 1999, Star shine went into orbit with Orbiter Discovery. On June 5, 1999, Starshine was deployed from the Hitchhiker canister into low Earth orbit. This paper describes the features of the design, analysis, and testing of the Starshine satellite that permitted its delivery in such a short time. The paper also describes the design and production of the spacecraft\u27s 878 mirrors and the polishing of those mirrors by 25,030 students in 18 countries, as well as the post-polishing protective coating of the finished mirrors. It will also describe the deployment of the satellite and early results of the tracking observations