ATK has confirmed the retirement of the Tactical Satellite-3 (TacSat-3) spacecraft, which was de-orbited to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere on April 30 – nearly three years after its launch in May 2009.
   ATK, the spacecraft’s bus manufacturer and prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force, designed TacSat-3 to endure six months of operation, while hoping that the satellite would last for a full year. TacSat-3 went far beyond these expectations – not only by surpassing its original mission requirements and goals as an experimental spacecraft, but also by demonstrating the capability to conduct hyper-spectral imaging to support the needs of U.S. warfighters.
   ATK Space Systems Vice President and General Manager Tom Wilson believes that TacSat-3 well served the U.S. Department of Defense. “We were proud to be part of the team that provided reconnaissance data from space to warfighters in the field and to intelligence analysts at home,” said Wilson. “Our innovative bus technology was a key factor in successfully extending the TacSat-3 demonstration to a longer-term operational mission. The mission enabled us to apply and enhance our flexible, modular bus platforms for future small satellite missions that included the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS-1) spacecraft.”