AKA: STP Payloads.
Flight P78-2 was successfully launched by SAMSO's Space Test Program. The mission was designated SCATHA (Spacecraft Charging at High Altitudes) and gathered data on the build-up of electrical charges on satellites operating at geosynchronous altitude. It was sponsored jointly by NASA and the Air Force. Spacecraft charging experiments. The SCATHA spacecraft had two charged particle injection systems, one of which was the Satellite Positive-Ion-Beam System (SPIBS). This was a xenon ion source which included some of the technologies used in thrusters: however, the discharge chamber was not performance optimized as was done with ion engines. Maximum operating power was 0.045 kW, and the ion source could produce a thrust of about 0.14 mN at a specific impulse of 350 s. Ions could be ejected at 1 keV or 2 keV. Neutralization was accomplished by a tantalum filament. The specific impulse was low because there was no attempt to optimize the propellant efficiency. The SPIBS system was ground-tested for a period of 600 hours. The SCATHA spacecraft was placed in a near geosynchronous orbit. Ion beam operations were performed intermittently over a 247 day period. The SCATHA flight demonstrated that a charged spacecraft, and the dielectric surfaces on it, could be safely discharged by emitting a very low energy (<50 eV) neutral plasma -- in effect shorting the spacecraft to the ambient plasma before dangerous charging levels could be reached. As of 28 August 2001 located at 153.98 deg W drifting at 4.513 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 8 located at 19.65W drifting at 4.513E degrees per day.
Atlas booster 27F successfully launched Space Test Program Flight P78-1 from Space Launch Complex 3W, Vandenberg AFB, California. The primary payload on the spacecraft was a gamma spectrometer sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Ionosphere and magnetosphere studies; destroyed on 13 September 1985 (while still functioning) as part of an American ASAT test.