CASSIOPE

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Cascade, Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE), is a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) multi-mission satellite operated by the University of Calgary. The mission development and operations from launch to February 2018 was funded through CSA and the Technology Partnerships Canada program. In February 2018 CASSIOPE became part of the European Space Agency's Swarm constellation through the Third-Party Mission Program, known as Swarm Echo, or Swarm-E. It was launched September 29, 2013, on the first flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle. CASSIOPE is the first Canadian hybrid satellite to carry a dual mission in the fields of telecommunications and scientific research. The main objectives are to gather information to better understand the science of space weather, while verifying high-speed communications concepts through the use of advanced space technologies.

The satellite was deployed in an elliptical polar orbit and carries a commercial communications system called Cascade as well as a scientific experiment package called e-POP (enhanced Polar Outflow Probe) Following staging, the Falcon 9's first stage was used by SpaceX for a controlled descent and landing test. While the first stage was destroyed on impact with the ocean, significant data was acquired and the test was considered a success.

History

The satellite that became CASSIOPE began with a 1996 concept for a small (70 kg), inexpensive microsatellite called Polar Outflow Probe, or POP. The Canadian Space Agency funded a 1997 feasibility study that led to a modified mission concept that was designed during 2000-2005. The revised concept was to combine an enhanced version of POP, called e-POP, with a MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) commercial satellite called Cascade, into a single satellite, and to design and build a generic, low-cost small satellite bus that would be useful for other Canadian satellite missions in the future. | access-date = January 13, 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131002134731/http://is.mdacorporation.com/mdais_canada/Programs/Programs_Cassiope.aspx | archive-date = October 2, 2013 | url-status = dead The eight e-POP scientific instruments were built, calibrated, and tested in 2005-2007, with integration onto the satellite bus for spacecraft-level testing in 2008-2009.

Spacecraft

CASSIOPE is a 481 kg small satellite that is 180 cm long and 125 cm high. | access-date = January 13, 2026 | access-date = 6 January 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180808195317/https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/cassiope.asp | archive-date = 8 August 2018 | url-status = live

Cascade

The commercial payload, named Cascade, is a technology demonstrator courier in the sky, aimed at providing a proof of concept for a digital broadband courier service for commercial use. | access-date = January 13, 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131030231024/http://epop.phys.ucalgary.ca/cascade.html | archive-date = October 30, 2013 | url-status = dead

e-POP

The e-POP portion of CASSIOPE is a suite of eight scientific instruments. The University of Calgary's Institute for Space Research leads the science project, while MDA is the prime contractor for the mission including launch and operation of the spacecraft. The orbital science mission is scheduled for a 21-month duration. e-POP will gather data on Solar storms in the upper atmosphere. These storms give rise to the polar aurora or northern lights seen in the skies in northern latitudes. While these atmospheric glows may offer a thrilling nighttime spectacle, the inducing radiation can interfere with radio communications, GPS navigation, and other space-based systems. | access-date = January 13, 2026

The e-POP payload contains eight scientific instruments:

• Coherent EM Radio Tomography (CER), measuring radio propagation and ionospheric scintillation
• Fast Auroral Imager (FAI), measuring large-scale auroral emissions
• GPS Altitude and Profiling Experiment (GAP), high-precision position and attitude determination
• Imaging and Rapid Scanning Ion Mass Spectrometer (IRM), measuring the three-dimensional distribution of ions
• Fluxgate Magnetometer (MGF), high-precision magnetic field perturbation measurement
• Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS), measuring the mass, composition and velocity of neutral particles
• Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI), measuring radio wave propagation
• Suprathermal Electron Imager (SEI), measuring low-energy electron distribution

Launch

In 2006, when SpaceX Falcon 9 launch services were contracted, the vehicle had not yet been developed. | access-date = January 15, 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20241207102546/https://www.flightglobal.com/spacex-wins-falcon-9-contract/66673.article | archive-date = December 7, 2024 | url-status = live | access-date = January 15, 2026 | archive-url = http://archive.today/2026.01.13-190610/https://spacenews.com/spacex-achieves-key-milestone-of-tenth-launch-agreement/ | archive-date = January 13, 2026 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130115133709/http://spaceref.ca/missions-and-programs/canadian-space-agency/canadas-cassiope-satellite-nearing-liftoff.html | archive-date = January 15, 2013 | url-status = dead

MDA consented to place CASSIOPE on the inaugural flight of an essentially unproven launch vehicle. The Falcon 9 v1.1, an upgraded version of the original Falcon 9, was significantly larger and heavier, with a 60 percent increase in thrust. | access-date = January 15, 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131002033319/http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/006/130928preview/#.UkuUBOzhX-k | archive-date = October 2, 2013 | url-status = live | access-date = January 14, 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130518125614/http://www.newspacejournal.com/2013/03/27/after-dragon-spacexs-focus-returns-to-falcon/ | archive-date = May 18, 2013 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 15, 2026 | url-access = subscription | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130913134639/http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/37094musk-says-spacex-being-%E2%80%9Cextremely-paranoid%E2%80%9D-as-it-readies-for-falcon-9%E2%80%99s | archive-date = September 13, 2013 | url-status = dead

Given that this was the inaugural flight of a new launch vehicle, the US Air Force estimated the overall probability of failure on the mission to be nearly 50 percent. | access-date = January 15, 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131031120451/https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/08/27/2013-20726/waiver-to-space-exploration-technologies-corporation-of-acceptable-risk-limit-for-launch | archive-date = October 31, 2013 | url-status = live | access-date = January 12, 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150630221850/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33305083 | archive-date = June 30, 2015 | url-status = live

CASSIOPE was launched on September 29, 2013, marking SpaceX’s inaugural launch of a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. | access-date = January 12, 2026

| access-date = January 6, 2026

Post-mission launch vehicle testing

Main article: SpaceX reusable launch system development program

After the second stage separated from the booster stage, SpaceX tested the booster in an attempt to re-enter the lower atmosphere in a controlled manner and decelerate to a simulated over-water landing. Three minutes into the launch, the booster stage attitude was reversed, and three of the nine engines refired at high altitude, as planned, to initiate the deceleration and controlled descent trajectory to the surface of the ocean. The first phase of the test worked well and the first stage re-entered safely. However, the first stage began to roll due to aerodynamic forces during the descent through the atmosphere, and the roll rate exceeded the capabilities of the booster attitude control system (ACS) to null it out. The fuel in the tanks centrifuged to the outside of the tank and the single engine involved in the low-altitude deceleration maneuver shut down. Debris from the first stage was subsequently retrieved from the ocean.

SpaceX also ran a post-mission test on the second stage. While a number of the new capabilities were successfully tested on the CASSIOPE flight, there was an issue with the second stage restart test. The test to reignite the second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine once the rocket had deployed its primary payload (CASSIOPE) and all of its nanosat secondary payloads was unsuccessful. The engine failed to restart while the second stage was coasting in low-Earth orbit.

Secondary payloads

Five nanosatellite spacecraft that were also carried to orbit on the same launch vehicle that carried the CASSIOPE primary payload:

• CUSat, Cornell University
• Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer (DANDE), University of Colorado Boulder
• three Polar Orbiting Passive Atmospheric Calibration Spheres (POPACS), each a 10 cm white aluminum sphere, joint project of Morehead State University, University of Arkansas, Montana State University, Drexel University, and Planetary Systems Corporation.

Operations

After a successful launch on September 29, 2013, CASSIOPE entered into a commissioning phase that lasted to January 1, 2014, with no faults detected on the spacecraft bus or payloads. Three ground stations were utilized, including Kiruna (Sweden), Inuvik (Canada), and the German Antarctic Receiving Station at the General Bernardo O'Higgins Base in Antarctica. Routine operations were scheduled to run to March, 2015. The mission was extended via funding from the Technology Partnerships Canada program through the Industrial Technologies Office that was part of the Canadian government at the time. In February 2018, the European Space Agency, through the Third Party Mission Program, integrated the mission into the Swarm constellation of satellites. | access-date = 6 January 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221010103739/https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/Swarm_trio_becomes_a_quartet | archive-date = 10 October 2022 | url-status = live

On August 11, 2016, one of the four reaction wheels used for spacecraft attitude control failed. This did not affect spacecraft operations in a significant way since only three wheels are required for 3-axis stabilized pointing. A second reaction wheel failed on February 27, 2021, forcing the spacecraft into a slowly spinning, safe-hold attitude configuration. Three-axis stabilized control was restored in September 2021 by implementing a bias momentum configuration on the two remaining wheels (spinning the wheels in opposite directions), and using the magnetic torque rods for attitude control. Three months later, on December 17, 2021, a third reaction wheel failed, leaving the spacecraft with no viable methods for fixed attitude pointing. Although most of the e-POP instruments were fully operational, without stabilized pointing much of the science objectives could not be met, resulting in a conclusion of the operational portion of the mission on December 31, 2021.

References

References

1. (January 30, 2024). "CASSIOPE Satellite details 2013-055A NORAD 39265". N2YO.
2. (2013). "e-POP Project Schedule". [[University of Calgary]].
3. (2013). "e-POP Payload on CASSIOPE". University of Calgary.
4. Lindsey, Clark. (March 28, 2013). "SpaceX moving quickly towards fly-back first stage". NewSpace Watch.
5. Messier, Doug. (September 29, 2013). "Falcon 9 Launches Payloads into Orbit From Vandenberg". Parabolic Arc.
6. Ferster, Warren. (September 29, 2013). "Upgraded Falcon 9 Rocket Successfully Debuts from Vandenberg". Space News.
7. Messier, Doug. (September 10, 2013). "A Preview of Falcon 9′s Flight From Vandenberg". Parabolic Arc.
8. (2012). "Counting Down to the Launch of POPACS (Polar Orbiting Passive Atmospheric Calibration Spheres)".
9. Howell, Elizabeth. (September 27, 2013). "SpaceX to Launch Space Weather Satellite for Canada Sunday". [[Space.com]].
10. Graham, William. (September 29, 2013). "SpaceX successfully launches debut Falcon 9 v1.1". NASA Spaceflight.
11. (2014). "CASSIOPE/e-POP Fact Sheet". University of Calgary.
12. (2022). "CASSIOPE science operations come to an end".