NASA Instrument and Sensing Technology

NASA Space

Instrument and Sensing Technology

Space Mission Acronym List and Hyperlink Guide

(A through B)


NOTICE: Because this page had grown so large (~168K), I have split it into 14 pages. Some direct, named links will no longer work. If you are looking for information about a particular mission, please select the appropriate file from the following alphabetical listing. If you cannot find information on the mission you are looking for, you may find some information in the "Pages with Information on Many Missions" section of the General Information page.

SPACE MISSIONS

ACE -- Advanced Composition Explorer

Scheduled for Launch August 25, 1997.

ACTIVE

Launched September 28, 1989. Some information is available from the MAGION-2 listing. See also Interkosmos.

ACTS -- Advanced Communication Technology Satellite

The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite was launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Pad 39B , aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103) as part of the STS-51 mission on September 12th, 1993. On the same day, ACTS was deployed from the shuttle bay. ACTS, a primary payload on the mission, was placed in a geostationary orbit at 100 degrees west longitude.

ADEOS -- Advanced Earth Observing System

Launched August 17, 1996 (01:53 UT), from the Tanegashiuma Space Center on an H-II Launch Vehicle. The NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) instrument on this mission is supported as an Earth Probe (I think). ADEOS is also carrying the TOMS Instrument. This mission is part of the IEOS.

AEM -- Applications Explorer Mission

See HCMM for AEM-A, SAGE for AEM-2, MAGSAT for AEM-3.

AIM -- Astrometric Interferometry Mission

Akebono

See EXOS-D. The satellite was launched in March, 1989.

ALEXIS -- Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors

Launched April 25, 1993.

Almaz

Alpha

See ISSA.

AMPTE -- Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers

Launched August 16, 1984, AMPTE included three spacecraft launched together, CCE, IRM, and UKS.

Alouette

Alouette I was launched September 29, 1962. Following the success of Canada's Alouette satellite launch in 1962, Canada and the United States signed an agreement to launch three satellites under a new program called International Satellites for Ionospheric Studies (see ISIS for information on these later missions).

ANS -- Astronomische Nederlandse Satelliet

Launched mid-1970's, lasted about one year.

APEX

Launched December 18, 1991. Some information is available from the MAGION-3 listing.

Apollo

ARGON

Used the organizational frameworks of CORONA. A mapping system with 7 of 12 missions successful from May 1962 - August 1964.

ARGOS

I have not been able to find much on-line information about this mission, which will carry experiments from NRL, Phillips Labs, UCB, and U. or Chicago. It's mentioned on the Rocket and Satellite Studies of Space Weather and Climate page (not working last time I checked) from NRL but no details are on line yet.

ARIES -- Australian Resource Information and Environment Satellite

ARISE -- Advanced Radio Interferometry between Space and Earth

A mission concept (no launch date yet) selected for study under the New Mission Concepts for Astrophysics NASA Research Announcement (NRA).

ASCA -- Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics

Formerly ASTRO-D, launched by Japan in 1993. Asuka, pronounced As'ka, means flying bird.

ASEPS -- Astrometric Search for Extra-Solar Planets

See ExNPS. Formerly known as TOPS.

ASTEX

I think this might be another name for a mission called S71-2 launched October 17, 1971.

ASTP -- Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

Astrid

Launched January 24, 1995 from the Russian launch site Plesetsk using a piggyback arrangement on a COSMOS launch vehicle. ASTRID marks the first use of the Freja-C, a generic microsatellite bus that has been developed by the Swedish Space Corporation in Solna.

ASTRO

ASTRO-1 included three experiments, HUT (the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope), WUPPE (the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photopolarimetery Experiment), and UIT (the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope).

ASTRO-D renamed ASCA.

ASTRO-E is an x-ray astronomy mission scheduled for launch in 1999.

ASTROMAG -- The Particle Astrophysics Magnet Facility

ASUSat

Planned for launch by an Orbital Science Corporation (OSC) Pegasus rocket in March 1997.

ATS -- Applications Technology Satellite

ATS-6 launched from Cape Canaveral on May 30, 1974.

AURORAE

AURORAE, or ESRO-1 A was launched in October 1986. It determined the polar frontiers of the Van Allen radiation belt.

AXAF -- Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility

Planned for launch in September of 1998. One of the four Great Observatories:

BBXRT -- Broad-Band X-Ray Telescope

Bhaskara

The first experimental Earth observation satellites launched by India. Bhaskara-1 was launched in 1979, and Bhaskara-2 was launched in 1981. See also IRS.

BOREAS

See ESRO. BOREAS, launched in October 1969, was similar to Aurorae, but a malfunction of the American rocket meant it had an operational life of only two months.

AIRCRAFT/BALLOON MISSIONS

Airborne Missions

AIRSAR

AOL -- Airborne Oceanographic Lidar

AVIRIS -- Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer


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Created September 19, 1996. Last update: August 4, 1997 (additional, minor updates as late as July 26, 2000). Due to changing job assignments, I no longer actively maintain this page, and no one has taken over. I will continue to correct problems on a best effort basis.

Please see my Disclaimer and Web Policy page. Maintained by Gordon Johnston:

Gordon.Johnston@hq.nasa.gov

The world wide web uniform resource locator (URL) for this page is:

http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/Sensors_page/MissionLinks/mlab.html