Star Bus
Family of spacecraft buses
Star Bus is a satellite bus family of Orbital ATK. It was originally developed by Thomas van der Heyden, co-founder of CTAI, and later sold to and manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation.
The Star Bus satellite platform is designed for various applications, including communications, remote sensing, and scientific missions. The highly configurable platform allows customization to meet specific mission requirements. In addition, it can support a wide range of payloads, including high-resolution imaging systems, microwave sensors, and advanced communication systems.
The Star Bus platform is designed with a modular architecture, allowing for easy integration of various subsystems and payloads. The bus provides power, communications, and data handling capabilities, while the loads provide mission-specific capabilities. The platform is designed to be highly reliable and has been used in various missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto.
01Evolution of the Star Bus Platform
Since its initial development, the Star Bus platform has undergone continuous enhancements, expanding its capabilities for increasingly complex missions. Orbital ATK, now part of Northrop Grumman after its acquisition in 2018, has further refined the platform to support geostationary communications satellites, low Earth orbit (LEO) missions, and interplanetary exploration. These advancements include improvements in power generation, thermal management, and propulsion systems, making it one of the most versatile satellite platforms in the industry. The Star Bus family has been employed in both commercial and governmental projects, including the SES and Intelsat communications constellations.
02History
The Star Bus platform originated in the early 1990s when Thomas van der Heyden, co-founder of CTA Incorporated (CTAI), designed it for the Indonesian Cakrawarta direct broadcast satellite program. CTAI was acquired by Orbital Sciences Corporation in 1997, and the platform passed into Orbital's product line. Orbital Sciences merged with Alliant Techsystems in 2015 to form Orbital ATK, which was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2018 and folded into Northrop Grumman Space Systems.
The first satellite program based on the Star Bus platform, developed by Thomas van der Heyden for the Indonesian Direct Broadcast program IndoVision, was IndoStar-1, which was launched in November 1997.
03Variants
| Name | Mission type | Orbit | Payload capability | Mission life | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RapidStar-1 | Military/Reconnaissance | LEO | 60 kg/75W | 1-5 years | |||
| RapidStar-2 | Military/Reconnaissance | LEO | 200 kg/500W | 1-5 years | |||
| LEOStar-2 | Civil/Military | LEO | 150 kg/400W | 1-10 years | |||
| LEOStar-3 | Civil/Military | LEO | 3,000 kg/800W | 1-10 years | |||
| GEOStar-1 | Military/Reconnaissance | GEO | 150 kg/200W | 5-7 years | |||
| GEOStar-2 | Communications | GEO | 500 kg/5.5 kW | 15-18 years | |||
| GEOStar-3 | Communications | GEO | 800 kg/8.0 kW | 15-18 years | |||
| MicroStar-1 | Constellation | LEO | 15 kg/360W | 1-3 years | |||
| ESPAStar-1 | Military/Reconnaissance | LEO or GEO | 250 kg/500W | 1-5 years | |||
| ESPAStar-2 | Military/Reconnaissance | LEO or GEO | 1,080 kg/1.2 kW | 1-5 years | |||
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Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Star Bus”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- OptusD1 SatelliteOnly.jpg by Unknown author, Fair use
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