Lips Credit - US Navy

Spacecraft Technology Center developed the Living Plume Shield (LiPS) experiment to convert the plume shield ejected from a primary payload's upper stage into a low cost platform to conduct technology demonstrations. Although the Atlas F launch vehicle for the LiPS I failed on lift-off in 1980, the subsequent LiPS II satellite launched aboard an Atlas H rocket in February 1983 and reached orbit with a UHF single channel transponder as its payload. LiPS 3 may have conducted tether experiments.

The successful operation of the LiPS experiments initiated an evolutionary program that yielded a profound impact on tactical communications supporting military operations, including development of Tactical Receive Equipment (TRE), the Joint Combat Information Terminal (JCIT) and the Radiant Hail system for dissemination of tactical battlefield information.

Associated Launch Vehicle: Atlas E, Atlas H.

• 1980 December 9 - LIPS 1 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Atlas E. FAILURE: Premature shut down of one of the Atlas booster engines turned the vehicle around, whereafter the sustainer thrust it back toward the earth.

• 1983 February 9 - LIPS 2 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Atlas H. Perigee: 822 km (510 mi). Apogee: 1,399 km (869 mi). Inclination: 63.30 deg. Period: 107.49 min.

• 1987 May 15 - LIPS 3 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Atlas H. Perigee: 899 km (558 mi). Apogee: 1,316 km (817 mi). Inclination: 63.40 deg. Period: 107.42 min.

• 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.