ARGOS

The Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS) was launched on 23 February 1999 carrying nine payloads for research and development missions by nine separate researchers. The mission terminated on 31 July 2003. ARGOS was launched from SLC-2W, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, atop a Boeing Delta II (7920-10) launch vehicle. Construction of the spacecraft bus and integration of the satellite's payloads was accomplished by Boeing at their Seal Beach, California facility. The program was funded and led by the DoD's Space Test Program (STP) as mission P91-1 (the first STP mission contract awarded in 1991). The US$220 million mission was operated by Air Force Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center's Test and Evaluation Directorate (then Space Development and Test Wing, now SMC's Advanced Systems and Development Directorate)<ref>[http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/554895/smc-stands-up-new-advanced-systems-and-development-directorate.aspx "SMC stands up new Advanced Systems and Development Directorate", 24 November 2014] </ref> from their RDT&E Support Complex (RSC) at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. ARGOS was the first mission operated 100% from the new state-of-the-art, commercial-off-the-shelf Kirtland facility; all previous SMC satellite missions had been operated in total or at least in part from the preceding center at Onizuka Air Force Station, California. Mission ARGOS (also called STP mission P91-1) was a DoD research and development satellite mission, managed by the Space and Missile Systems Center Space Division at Kirtland AFB (SMC/TE), Albuquerque, NM. It was part of the USAF Space Test Program (STP) with the objective to demonstrate several new space technologies and to fly payloads for global Earth sensing and celestial observations.