U.S. Air Force officials were planning to hand over a small experimental imaging satellite to Space Command on Saturday, the first time one of the Pentagon's low-cost responsive missions has been thrust into an operational role.

TacSat 3 launched in May 2009 aboard a Minotaur 1 rocket from Wallops Island, Va. Credit: NASA

Launched in May 2009, the TacSat 3 satellite accomplished all of its planned objectives, including 2,100 image captures from a hyperspectral camera called ARTEMIS, which stands for the Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer.

"The project successfully demonstrated that a high-quality and low-cost imaging spectrometer sensor can be a reality, opening the door for future operational systems employing imaging spectrometer technology," said Thomas Cooley, TacSat 3's program manager at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

TacSat 3 was the second satellite launched under the the Operationally Responsive Space program, which aims to rapidly develop, integrate, test and launch missions valuable to tactical battlefield commanders.

The long-term objective is to quickly respond to the needs of tactical commanders, creating a program of "on-call" satellites and instruments that can beam data directly to troops on the battlefield.

One of TacSat 3's successful demos was transmitting processed data to a ground station within 10 minutes of being called up, according to the Air Force.

"TacSat 3 has been a pathfinder to explore concepts of operation for future Operationally Responsive Space, or ORS, systems and has demonstrated the utility of hyperspectral information to benefit soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines around the world," said Peter Wegner, director of the ORS office.

Artist's concept of the TacSat 3 spacecraft. Credit: U.S. Air Force

The ORS program is developing TacSat missions to demonstrate the concept for responsive missions, but TacSat 3 is the first test satellite to be transitioned to operational status.

"Having conducted multiple experiments with mission partners that proved the capability to use high-quality data to address a wide range of problems for the warfighter, we look forward to transitioning our lessons learned to all appropriate acquisition agencies," Cooley said.

TacSat 2 completed one year of demonstrations in orbit in early 2008, but the military decommissioned that satellite instead of making it operational. TacSat 1 is still on the ground and its future is in question.

The ORS program is planning two launches this fall. Another tactical test satellite, named TacSat 4, will launch on a Minotaur rocket from Alaska in November, according to an Air Force spokesperson.

The Navy-led TacSat 4 mission will provide troops better access to space-based UHF communications. TacSat 4's 10 UHF channels will help warfighters communicate, secure data and track friendly forces in theaters.

Another Minotaur rocket will blast off from Virginia in December with ORS 1, the office's first satellite designed from the start for an operational mission. Built by ATK, the ORS 1 spacecraft is based on the same satellite platfrom as TacSat 3, but it will host a modified camera used on the U-2 spy plane.

The ORS 1 satellite under construction. Credit: Goodrich ISR Systems

The ORS 1 instrument is being built by Goodrich ISR Systems, which is also the mission's prime contractor.

The 880-pound TacSat 3 satellite, which circles more than 260 miles above Earth, also tested plug-and-play avionics technology, used a Navy communications package to download ocean buoy data to a ground station, and demonstrated an Army tactical concept of operations with an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system.

Officials have not released the ARTEMIS instrument's spatial resolution, but TacSat 3's imager can break visible light into about 400 spectral bands, giving the instrument the ability to map chemicals, minerals and perhaps even see through camouflage on the battlefield.

"The team accomplished all of the key program objectives, and the satellite has provided high-quality, information-rich data, which we will continue to exploit for many months to fully quantify the applicability of the imaging spectrometer system to meet a wide range of applications," Cooley said. "We also now have an excellent data set, which can be used to inform future satellite acquisitions of spectral systems."