Канадский спутник CASSIOPE: история миссии и научные исследования

The satellite was deployed in an elliptical and carries a commercial communications system called Cascade as well as a scientific experiment package called e POP (enhanced Polar Outflow Probe). Coherent EM Radio Tomography (CER), measuring radio propagation and ionospheric scintillation
Fast Auroral Imager (FAI), measuring large scale auroral emissions
GPS Altitude and Profiling Experiment (GAP), high precision position and attitude determination
Imaging and Rapid Scanning Ion Mass Spectrometer (IRM), measuring the three dimensional distribution of ions
Fluxgate Magnetometer (MGF), high precision magnetic field perturbation measurement
Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS), measuring the mass, composition and velocity of neutral particles
Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI), measuring radio wave propagation
Suprathermal Electron Imager (SEI), measuring low energy electron distribution

After a successful launch on September 29, 2013, CASSIOPE entered into a commissioning phase that lasted to January 1, 2014, with no faults detected on the spacecraft bus or payloads. Three ground stations were utilized, including Kiruna (Sweden), Inuvik (Canada), and the German Antarctic Receiving Station at the General Bernardo O'Higgins Base in Antarctica. Routine operations were scheduled to run to March, 2015. The mission was extended via funding from the Technology Partnerships Canada program through the Industrial Technologies Office that was part of the Canadian government at the time. In February 2018, the European Space Agency, through the Third Party Mission Program, integrated the mission into the Swarm constellation of satellites, dubbing CASSIOPE "Swarm Echo", recognizing the synergy between the two missions in collecting space weather data in low Earth orbit. The partnership allowed for four ground station contacts per day, rather than one, greatly increasing the amount of data that could be downloaded from the e POP suite of instruments. On August 11, 2016, one of the four reaction wheels used for spacecraft attitude control failed. This did not affect spacecraft operations in a significant way since only three wheels are required for 3 axis stabilized pointing. A second reaction wheel failed on February 27, 2021, forcing the spacecraft into a slowly spinning, safe hold attitude configuration. Three axis stabilized control was restored in September 2021 by implementing a bias momentum configuration on the two remaining wheels (spinning the wheels in opposite directions), and using the magnetic torque rods for attitude control. Three months later, on December 17, 2021, a third reaction wheel failed, leaving the spacecraft with no viable methods for fixed attitude pointing. Although most of the e POP instruments were fully operational, without stabilized pointing much of the science objectives could not be met, resulting in a conclusion of the operational portion of the mission on December 31, 2021. MDA contracted with SpaceX to put the CASSIOPE payload on the first flight of an essentially new launch vehicle—a non operational demonstration launch. The flight was contracted with a payload mass that is very small relative to the rocket's capability, at a discounted rate because it was a technology demonstration mission for SpaceX, approximately 20% of the normal published price for SpaceX Falcon 9 LEO missions. Since this was the first flight of a new launch vehicle, the US Air Force had estimated the overall probability of failure on the mission was nearly fifty percent. In the event, the mission was successful, as was each of the next 13 Falcon 9 v1.1 missions before a launch vehicle failure and loss of mission occurred on Falcon 9 Flight 19 in June 2015. The Falcon 9 upper stage used to launch CASSIOPE was left derelict in a decaying elliptical low Earth orbit that, , had a perigee of and an apogee of .

After the second stage separated from the booster stage, SpaceX conducted a novel flight test where the booster conducted a test to attempt to reenter the lower atmosphere in a controlled manner and decelerate to a simulated over water landing. The test was successful, but the booster stage was not recovered. After the three minute boost phase of September 29, 2013 launch, the booster stage attitude was reversed, and three of the nine engines refired at high altitude, as planned, to initiate the deceleration and controlled descent trajectory to the surface of the ocean. The first phase of the test worked well and the first stage re entered safely. However, the first stage began to roll due to aerodynamic forces during the descent through the atmosphere, and the roll rate exceeded the capabilities of the booster attitude control system (ACS) to null it out. The fuel in the tanks centrifuged to the outside of the tank and the single engine involved in the low altitude deceleration maneuver shut down. Debris from the first stage was subsequently retrieved from the ocean. The engine failed to restart while the second stage was coasting in low Earth orbit.