Midcourse Space Experiment: Guest Editor's Introduction
Max R. Peterson · 1996
The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) Program began at APL in late 1988 as a follow-on to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) (formerly SDIO) Delta 180, 181, and 183 programs. As described in the first article of this issue by Mill and Guilmain, the purpose of MSX is to make simultaneous calibrated measurements over a wide range of wavelengths in support of the BMDO mission. A secondary purpose is to transfer the technology of MSX processes to other programs with similar requirements, and also to share the information gathered. This is the first of two issues of the Digest devoted to describing the highly capable MSX Spacecraft Observatory. This issue focuses on the MSX mission and system-level design and development. The next issue will be devoted to subsystem and instrument descriptions. In addition, a future issue is being planned to present the scientific results of the MSX mission. While reading these Digest issues, the broad range of cooperation between government agencies and university and industry participants that was necessary to design, fabricate, test, launch, and operate MSX will become apparent. Without this cooperation, MSX would not be a reality. The article by Stair, in addition to that by Mill and Guilmain, describes specific scientific results expected to be achieved by the MSX Observatory to meet BMDO requirements. Although MSX was designed to meet the BMDO mission, its carefully calibrated sensors have a “dual-use” capability to augment existing data sets for both military and civilian use. Paxton et