Orbital LEOStar-2 Bus - Manual

There are eight LEOStar-2 spacecraft
delivered to customers with three
currently in design and production.
LEOStar-2 "Firsts"
• The Dawn planetary spacecraft is
the first operational application of
electric Ion propulsion, the first to orbit
a body in the asteroid belt, and the
first to rendezvous with and orbit two
planetary bodies.
• The GALEX satellite performed the
first ultraviolet all-sky survey covering
approximately 1 million galaxies.
• The NuSTAR satellite's X-ray
instrument produces images 100
times the sensitivity and 10 times
the resolution of previous X-ray
observatories.
Satellite Bus
LEOStar
™
-2 Bus
An affordable, versatile, small-to-medium size spacecraft bus suitable for SMEX, MIDEX, ESSP, and
Discovery class missions. Compatible with launch vehicles such as Pegasus
® , Minotaur, and Delta.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
Orbital’s LEOStar-2 series of spacecraft have supported multiple missions for commercial and
government customers over the past ten years. The current LEOStar-2 product line has an enviable
on-orbit performance record with four on-orbit and three more in production.
Design
Originally designed for the Pegasus XL launch vehicle, Orbital’s LEOStar-2 spacecraft bus provides a
flexible, high performance platform for space and earth scientific, remote sensing, and other commercial
applications on a variety of launch vehicles (Pegasus, Minotaur and Delta). The avionics architecture has
been configured for both single-string and redundant applications, supporting missions with durations
up to ten years. LEOStar-2 can accommodate various instrument interfaces, deliver up to 2 kW orbit
average payload power, and support payloads up to 500 kg. Performance options include redundancy,
propulsion capability, high data rate communications, and high-agility/high-accuracy pointing.
Payload Accomodations
The flexible LEOStar-2 spacecraft bus has been adapted to a variety of space science, remote sensing,
and technology validation missions. The spacecraft employs a compact avionics suite housed within a
hexagonal bus platform, enabling Orbital to deliver a significant launch vehicle fairing volume for multiple
instruments. Our modular approach to the spacecraft platform and instrument deck enables parallel
integration and testing, reducing overall delivery schedule. With the LEOStar-2, Orbital has regularly
delivered attitude control better than 15 arc-seconds, with attitude knowledge less than 6 arc-seconds.
Through the inclusion of higher performance actuators, we can achieve greatly improved agility.
LEO
Dulles, Virginia SMF Gilbert, Arizona SMF