The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) was shipped to Kennedy Space Center, Fla. on October 25 to begin launch preparations. The spacecraft left Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va., on the 25th and arrived at Kennedy Space Center on October 26 for final tests and integration with a Pegasus XL rocket for launch this winter.
“This is a major milestone in our mission and now we look forward to launch preparations,” said Bill Ochs, SORCE Project Manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “This mission serves as an example of how NASA, universities, and industry can partner together and create successful science missions.”
SORCE is a small free-flying satellite carrying four scientific instruments to measure the solar radiation incident at the top of the Earth’s atmosphere. The four instruments include the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM), the Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM), Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) and the Extreme Ultraviolet Photometer System (XPS). TIM, SIM and SOLSTICE will measure solar irradiance and the solar spectrum to help scientists understand the Sun’s role in climate change. The XPS will measure high-energy radiation from the Sun.
This mission is a joint partnership between NASA and the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in Boulder, Colo. SORCE is a principal investigator led mission with NASA Goddard providing management oversight and engineering support.
Scientists and engineers at LASP designed, built, calibrated, and tested the four science instruments on SORCE. LASP subcontracted with OSC for the spacecraft and observatory integration and testing. The Mission Operations Center and the Science Operations Center are both operated at LASP. LASP will operate the spacecraft over its five-year mission life and is responsible for the acquisition, management, processing, and distribution of the science data.
SORCE is a key component of NASA’s Earth Observing System program. SORCE will address long-term climate change, natural variability and enhanced climate prediction, and atmospheric ozone and UV-B radiation, measurements that are critical to studies of the Sun; its effect on our Earth system; and its influence on humankind.
For more information on SORCE see:
