MIDAS (satellite)
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The Missile Defense Alarm System, or MIDAS, was a
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for air defense of the continental United States. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air De ...
system of 12 early-warning
satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
s that provided limited notice of
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...
launches between 1960 and 1966. Originally it was intended to serve as a complete early-warning system working in conjunction with the
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System The RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS, 474L System, Project 474L) was a United States Air Force Cold War early warning radar, computer, and communications system, for ballistic missile detection. The network of twelve rada ...
, cost and reliability concerns limited the project to a research and development role. Three of the system's 12 launches ended in failure, and the remaining nine satellites provided crude
infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...
early-warning coverage of the Soviet Union until the project was replaced by the
Defense Support Program The Defense Support Program (DSP) is a program of the United States Space Force that operated the reconnaissance satellites which form the principal component of the ''Satellite Early Warning System'' used by the United States. DSP satellite ...
. MiDAS represented one element of the United States's first generation of
reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...
satellites that also included the
Corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus or disease responsible for the COVID-19 ...
and
SAMOS Samos (, also ; , ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate reg ...
series. Though MIDAS failed in its primary role as a system of infrared early-warning satellites, it pioneered the technologies needed in successor systems.


Origins

On October 4, 1957, from the Tyuratam range in the
Kazakh SSR The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, KSSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the transcontinental constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Located in northern Centr ...
, the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
launched
Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program ...
, the world's first artificial satellite. The event, while a scientific triumph, also signified that the Soviet Union now had the capability to attack the United States with an
intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...
(ICBM). The R-7, the
booster rocket A booster is a rocket (or rocket engine) used either in the first stage of a multistage rocket, multistage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer-burning sustainer engine, sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and p ...
that launched
Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program ...
and
Sputnik 2 Sputnik 2 (, , ''Satellite 2'', or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 (PS-2, , ''Simplest Satellite 2'', launched on 3 November 1957, was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, and the first to carry an animal into orbit, a Soviet space dog named ...
, could be loaded instead with a
hydrogen bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lo ...
, bringing the threat of a surprise nuclear Pearl Harbor-style attack on the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. To give an early warning of any Soviet sneak ICBM attack, the governments of the United States, Canada, and
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(with the authority over
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
, where the main radar station was built at
Thule Air Base Pituffik Space Base ( ; ; ), formerly Thule Air Base (), is a United States Space Force base located on the northwest coast of Greenland in the Kingdom of Denmark under a defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. 150 United Stat ...
) agreed to build the
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System The RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS, 474L System, Project 474L) was a United States Air Force Cold War early warning radar, computer, and communications system, for ballistic missile detection. The network of twelve rada ...
(BMEWS). This system would use
radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
to detect incoming ICBM
warhead A warhead is the section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket (weapon), rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: *E ...
s and give about 20 minutes of warning of an ICBM attack. However, this system was hampered by the inherent limitations of radar systems and the
curvature of the Earth Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of the figure of the Earth as a sphere. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Greek philosophers. ...
. Due to the location of the Soviet Union on the other side of the
Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...
, the potential Soviet ICBM sites were thousands of miles over the horizon from the BMEWS radar stations that were under construction at Thule and
Clear Air Force Station Clear Space Force Station is a United States Space Force radar station for detecting incoming ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles to NORAD's command center and to provide Space Surveillance data to the United States Space Force. Cle ...
,
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(and later on, in
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), and the BMEWS stations, as huge as they are, could not detect the ICBM warheads immediately after their launching. Only when the warheads had risen above the horizon could they be detected and warnings passed on by the
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...
. Accurate calculations had already shown that the BMEWS system would give just ten to 25 minutes of warning in the case of an ICBM attack. The MIDAS system, as planned, would extend this warning time to about 30 minutes, giving the extra time needed for all of the
Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile compon ...
's nuclear-armed
heavy bombers Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the largest ...
to take off from their
air base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...
s, and hence proving to the Soviet government that it could not destroy these bombers in a sneak attack. Hence, the Soviets would be deterred from launching such an attack by a valid threat of nuclear retaliation."Draft of a Report on MIDAS"
Jack Ruina, DARPA. November 1, 1961. Accessed November 19, 2007.
In addition, the MIDAS system should have been able to confirm radar detections from BMEWS of a thermonuclear attack, hence reducing the chances of an accidental nuclear false alarm from the radar system.


Development and costs

On March 16, 1955, the
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...
had ordered the development of an advanced reconnaissance satellite to provide continuous surveillance of “preselected areas of the Earth” in order “to determine the status of a potential enemy’s war-making capability.” The result of this order was the creation of a then-secret USAF program known as WS-117L, which controlled the development of the first generation of American
reconnaissance satellites A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for Military intelligence, military or espionag ...
. These included the
Corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus or disease responsible for the COVID-19 ...
series of observation satellites and the SAMOS satellite. The company that was to become the
Lockheed-Martin Corporation The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North Bethesda, Mary ...
which had been hired to design, develop, and manufacture the two series of satellites, suggested several other satellite programs to fill supporting roles, including a satellite that would use
infrared sensor Infrared thermography (IRT), thermal video or thermal imaging, is a process where a thermal camera captures and creates an image of an object by using infrared radiation emitted from the object in a process, which are examples of infrared imag ...
s and a
telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...
to detect the heat produced by
heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually Aerial bomb, bombs) and longest range (aeronautics), range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy ...
s and ICBMs."Space-Based Early Warning: From MIDAS to DSP to SBIRS"
Jeffery Richelson, ''National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book'' No. 235. November 9, 2007. Accessed November 14, 2007.
In response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik and the appearance of the ICBM threat, Subsystem G was added to WS-117L before the end of 1957. With the creation of the
Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...
(ARPA), Subsystem G was taken over by that organization and given the codename MiDAS in November 1958. In February 1959, ARPA submitted an initial project development plan to the Air Force. As defined in the initial proposal, MIDAS would use
infrared sensor Infrared thermography (IRT), thermal video or thermal imaging, is a process where a thermal camera captures and creates an image of an object by using infrared radiation emitted from the object in a process, which are examples of infrared imag ...
s from high above the Soviet Union to detect ICBM launches and give early warning of a thermonuclear attack."W-37 Infrared Early Warning Sensor"
National Air and Space Museum, October 18, 1999. Accessed November 9, 2007.
The plan called for a 10-satellite
research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...
program between November 1959 and May 1961. After that time, a full-scale operational system would be deployed. Because the information collected by the MIDAS satellites was extraordinarily time-sensitive, the designers of the system could not use the film-canister dropping system that had been pioneered by the Discoverer/Corona/SAMOS series of
reconnaissance satellites A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for Military intelligence, military or espionag ...
. In that system, the
camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...
s aboard the satellites used
photographic film Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin photographic emulsion, emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the ...
capsules that physically re-entered the atmosphere before being retrieved mid-air by a military
airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...
. The MIDAS satellites would instead have to transmit their warning signals earthward via
radio waves Radio waves (formerly called Hertzian waves) are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the lowest frequencies and the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies below 300 gigahertz (GHz) and wavelengths ...
. Actual infrared images would not be transmitted due to the limited RF
channel capacity Channel capacity, in electrical engineering, computer science, and information theory, is the theoretical maximum rate at which information can be reliably transmitted over a communication channel. Following the terms of the noisy-channel coding ...
that was available then. Instead, the satellite would simply send radio messages that it had detected a suspected missile launch as well as the time and location of the launch. Multiple MIDAS satellites would be needed to provide round-the-clock coverage of the huge landmass of the Soviet Union. A
booster rocket A booster is a rocket (or rocket engine) used either in the first stage of a multistage rocket, multistage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer-burning sustainer engine, sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and p ...
capable of sending a satellite into
geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...
had not yet been developed, and one or a few of these might not be able to cover all the possible ICBM launch sites within Russia, especially in the far north near the
Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...
. Satellites in
polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of abo ...
s would be needed to detect launches from across the Soviet Union but due to the nature of the polar orbit, each would have only a brief period of time above the Soviet Union. As the planned capabilities of the satellite changed during the design process, so did the plans for their deployment. A plan completed in January 1959 recommended a constellation of twenty MIDAS satellites
orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...
ing at an altitude of 1,000 miles while a revised plan, produced later that year, envisioned a constellation of twelve spacecraft at 2,000-mile altitudes. Implementing a complete system, estimated in 1959, was put at between $200 million and $600 million"Report of the Early Warning Panel"
The President's Science Advisory Committee, March 13, 1959. Accessed November 14, 2007.
(equivalent to $ and $ in ). Because of this enormous cost and the fact that several "unanswered questions" remained, the scientific advisory council in charge of advising President
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
on Early Warning systems recommended that a program of research be conducted but that final word on implementing a complete system be delayed for at least a year. In FY1959, ARPA spent $22.8 million (equivalent to $ in ) on MIDAS, and in FY1960, ARPA and the Air Force spent a combined sum of $94.9 million (equivalent to $ in ).


Program summary and launch history

The MIDAS program commenced on February 26, 1960 when MIDAS 1 lifted off on an Atlas-Agena A booster from LC-14 at Cape Canaveral. The Atlas completed its burn successfully, but during the coasting phase prior to staging, the Atlas LOX tank pressure suddenly went to zero followed by missile tumbling while all Agena telemetry ceased. Postflight investigation proposed several causes, but the most likely one was inadvertent activation of the Agena Inadvertent Separation Destruct System (ISDS) charges. The ISDS system was redesigned after this incident, and MIDAS 2's booster did not carry an ISDS while modifications were being made. On May 24, MIDAS 2 was orbited successfully, but the attitude control system failed. Some data was returned by the infrared sensor before the telemetry system also failed. Several planned experiments such as detection of flares on the ground and a Titan I missile test were abandoned. It remained in orbit until decaying in 1974. The next launch in the series did not take place for over a year and the program now moved to the West Coast, with Point Arguello's SLC-3 1-2 being its base of operations. During this interval, two CORONA satellites also carried and tested MIDAS sensors. MIDAS 3, the first operational model, was launched on July 24, 1961 using the new, restartable Agena B stage. The Atlas's programmer reset itself due to a malfunction during booster jettison, but the satellite reached orbit successfully. However, one solar panel failed to deploy, starving MIDAS 3 of electrical power and it died after a few orbits. MIDAS 4 (October 21) brought about further frustration when the Atlas lost roll control at T+186 seconds. The satellite was placed into an incorrect trajectory, causing the Agena B to exhaust its attitude control gas trying to compensate during its two burns. By the time MIDAS 4 reached its intended transfer orbit, there was no attitude control gas left and the satellite could not be stabilized. It did manage to detect a Titan I launch from Cape Canaveral before one solar panel failed. A week into the mission, MIDAS 4 died when its batteries ran down. A month later, a similar control problem on SAMOS 4 resulted in the satellite failing to attain orbit. Investigation into the two failures found that the retrorocket package heat shields on both Atlas had broken off during launch, exposing the gyroscope package to aerodynamic heating. A transistor used in the roll output channel was also suspected to be at fault. It was replaced by a different type of transistor and the retrorocket heat shields were redesigned. The MIDAS program was temporarily suspended at this point when a committee headed by ARPA director Jack Ruina recommended that no attempt at an operational missile early warning system be made until the Air Force demonstrated that it was a feasible concept at all; in addition, Midas's sensors were designed to detect liquid-fueled rocket exhaust, not solid-fueled exhaust, which was now widely seen as the future of ballistic missiles (as things would have it, the Soviet Union was far behind the United States in development of solid-fueled rockets). The committee found that program management of MIDAS was "awful" and at the current rate of success, "it would take ten years to develop an operational system". In November 1961, the
Defense Department A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...
issued a directive placing all DoD space programs under strict secrecy, and so MIDAS was given the cover name "Program 461". The development time of the program was also lengthened to give more space to work out problems with the hardware. Despite these changes, the failures kept coming. After a six-month gap, MIDAS 5 orbited on April 9, 1962. The Atlas autopilot generated an insufficient pitch and roll program, resulting in excessive altitude and insufficient velocity. This prevented the normal guidance system cutoff commands from being sent so SECO was caused by propellant depletion while a backup command from the programmer performed VECO and Agena separation. MIDAS 5 reached orbit, but an improper one from what was planned. The satellite operated until orbit 7 when a battery failure resulted in insufficient power for continued operation of the satellite systems. An extensive investigation into the Atlas autopilot malfunction found that the gyroscopes had transmitted low signal gain in all three axes, but failed to determine a specific cause. Several changes to preflight procedures and improved testing of gyroscope packages resulted. Eight months later, MIDAS 6 lifted off (December 17) but never made it to orbit. The flight was apparently normal until loss of flight control starting at T+77 seconds. The Atlas broke up at T+80 seconds, the Agena continuing to transmit signals until impact in the ocean approximately 4.7 minutes after launch. Investigation into the cause of the malfunction was hampered by limited flight data--the Atlas's telemetry transmitter antenna had failed during the prelaunch countdown. Tracking film revealed a puff of smoke at the Atlas's tail end at T+64 seconds, and the missile began tumbling in all three axes at T+77 seconds before breaking up at the forward end of the LOX tank. Agena T/M also registered the loss of control. The cause of the failure was not substantiated until study of liftoff film found that a heat shield designed to protect the booster hydraulic rise-off disconnect had broken off at launch. With no thermal protection from the engine exhaust, the rise-off disconnect ruptured at T+64 seconds and allowed the hydraulic fluid for the booster engines to escape. After 13 seconds, the hydraulic system was depleted of fluid and booster gimbal control was lost. Another, unrelated malfunction had occurred when the tracking beacon for the Mod II-A guidance system failed. Had the flight continued to sustainer phase, it would be impossible to transmit guidance commands to the booster and likely result in an improper orbit and failure of the mission. MIDAS 7 was orbited successfully on May 9, 1963 and detected ten different US ICBM tests in its six-week mission, making the first successful detection of a missile launch from space. Then MIDAS 8 (June 12) repeated the same failure as MIDAS 6. Once again, the rise-off heat shield failed at liftoff, the Atlas's booster engine hydraulic fluid escaped, and the launch vehicle became unstable and self-destructed at T+93 seconds. A rise-off malfunction had also caused the failure of an Atlas D ICBM test flight in March 1963, and after three occurrences of this failure mode in six months, the rise-off heat shield was redesigned. As part of the redesign effort, GD/A also added check valves to the hydraulic system on Atlas space launchers, although not missiles. One month after MIDAS 8, the last in the original MIDAS series, MIDAS 9, was launched successfully. Midas 10-12 were launched during five months in mid-1966, after which the program was officially ended and gave way to its successor, the Defense Support Program. MIDAS and its successors were declassified in 1998. MIDAS was at best a qualified success since like many early space programs, it was overly ambitious and had goals beyond the capabilities of contemporary technology. Problems included mistaking
sunlight Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible spectrum, visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrare ...
reflected from
clouds In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may c ...
as an enemy missile launch. The W-17 infrared sensor proved unable to detect the initial heat plume of a missile through the Earth's atmosphere, and only with the introduction of the W-37 sensor was a launch detected from orbit. Even with this success, the MiDAS system was hampered by unsuccessful launches that destroyed satellites and killed any hope of round-the-clock coverage of the Soviet Union. In addition, the lack of a continuous power source such as a
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...
or
solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...
s meant that the satellites' batteries were exhausted after a few short weeks in orbit. Though the MIDAS program itself failed to meet expectations, it paved the way for the eventual introduction of the
Defense Support Program The Defense Support Program (DSP) is a program of the United States Space Force that operated the reconnaissance satellites which form the principal component of the ''Satellite Early Warning System'' used by the United States. DSP satellite ...
system of satellites that were first launched in the 1970s and provide early warning of missile launches today.


MiDAS launches

: ''Mission chart from'' AstronautixWade, Mark, ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'
Midas
and R. Cargill Hall. Missile Defense Alarm: The Genesis of Space-based Infrared Early Warning. Space and Missile Systems Center, 1988. Accessed: 2009-05-30
/ref>


Photo gallery

Image: MIDAS infrared sensor.PNG, MIDAS infrared sensor Image: MIDAS infrared sensor installation.PNG, MIDAS infrared sensor installation Image: RTS-1 infrared payload.PNG, RTS-1 infrared payload


See also

*
Air Force Space Command An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...
*
Defense Support Program The Defense Support Program (DSP) is a program of the United States Space Force that operated the reconnaissance satellites which form the principal component of the ''Satellite Early Warning System'' used by the United States. DSP satellite ...
*
Missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear weapon, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic mi ...
*
SM-65 Atlas The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General ...
*
Space-Based Infrared System The Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) is a United States Space Force system intended to meet the United States' Department of Defense infrared space surveillance needs through the first two to three decades of the 21st century. The SBIRS prog ...


References

{{Use American English, date=January 2014 United States Air Force Reconnaissance satellites of the United States Missile defense Early warning systems Military satellites Military space program of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1960s