The U.S. Air Force Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload was successfully launched Wednesday from the Guiana Space Center, Kourou, French Guiana. CHIRP, a hosted payload aboard a commercial communications satellite, was carried into a geosynchronous orbit by an Ariane V rocket.
"We overcame many challenges on the way to [Wednesday's] launch," said Col. Scott Beidleman, Space and Missile Systems Center's Development Planning Director.
"This effort is unique because the CHIRP launch marks not only the first-ever commercially hosted payload for the Air Force, but also the first ever wide field-of-view infrared staring payload in space. I commend the CHIRP government and contractor teams for their dedication to mission success."
CHIRP is a technology maturation and risk reduction experiment to collect real-world data, investigate spacecraft-sensor interactions and sensor behavior in the space environment, explore operational issues relevant to these sensors, and evaluate long-term suitability of commercially hosted payloads.
CHIRP will first power on approximately 30 days after launch, with on-orbit experiments to follow.
CHIRP technology is applicable to missile warning/defense, technical intelligence, and battlespace awareness missions.
The CHIRP team is a government-industry collaboration led by the Air Force's Space and Missile System Center Development Planning Directorate. CHIRP is a pathfinder for both WFOV IR staring technologies and commercially hosted payloads.
