At 8:07 pm yesterday the STRV-1C spacecraft carrying CEASE was successfully launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Koiou launch facility in French Guyana. The launch authority, Arianespace, reported that both of DERA’s Space Technology Research Vehicles (STRV 1 c&d) had separated successfully from the rocket 34 minutes after launch as planned. The 100 kg micro-satellites carry a suite of environmental monitors which will give comprehensive radiation measurements, assess atomic oxygen and electrostatic charging effects, and detect cosmic dust and ionospheric anomalies. STRV-1C will travel through the harsh space environment of the geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). This is the second CEASE instrument launched this year.
CEASE is a small, low power instrument that provides spacecraft operators with fully processed, real time, in situ measurements and autonomously generated warnings of the space radiation environment threats.