GLOMR (Global Low Orbiting Message Relay) was a DARPA project designed to demonstrate the ability to read out, store, and forward data from remote ground-based sensors.

The satellite was first scheduled for deployment from STS-51B, but a battery problem forced a return to Earth for repair. Reflown and deployed from STS-61A, the vehicle finally re-entered after 14 months. The total price was less than 1 million dollars. The spacecraft was a small, 62-sided polyhedron, and unstabilized. The design included redundant transmitters, receivers, batteries, and battery charge control systems. It had two CMOS microprocessors - one for communications control, the other for scheduling, mass memory, housekeeping, and mission control, telemetry, and command functions.

The SECS (Special Experimental Communications System) or GLOMR 2 was an improved digital store and forward communications spacecraft for a classified mission. The design was similar to GLOMR with more data storage, greater redundancy, and more space qualified hardware content. SECS was the first spacecraft launched on the air-launched Pegasus launch vehicle. The spacecraft operated for 3.5 years. The spacecraft had a spherical structure, and was unstabilized with body mounted solar cells. The payload was to GLOMR.

Design Life: 1 year. Length: 0.60 m (1.96 ft). Maximum Diameter: 0.60 m (1.96 ft). Associated Launch Vehicle: Pegasus, Shuttle.

• 1985 October 30 - GLOMR; GLOMAR - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. Mass: 52 kg (114 lb). Perigee: 317 km (196 mi). Apogee: 332 km (206 mi). Inclination: 57.00 deg. Period: 91.00 min.

  Released from STS 61A 11/1/85. Spacecraft engaged in research and exploration of the upper atmosphere or outer space (US Cat B).

• 1990 April 5 - USA 55 - Launch Site: Edwards. Launch Vehicle: Pegasus. Mass: 25 kg (55 lb). Perigee: 477 km (296 mi). Apogee: 642 km (398 mi). Inclination: 94.10 deg. Period: 95.90 min.

  Store and forward.

• Krebs, Gunter, Gunter's Space Page, University of Frankfurt, 1996. Accessed at: http://www.skyrocket.de/space.

• JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Accessed at: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

• USAF Satellite Database, USAF Institute of Technology, 1995. Accessed at: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited since Sputnik. Accessed at: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html.