ODYSSEY

Oydssey is a technology demonstration satellite for the US Space Force’s tactically responsive launch program (TacRL), which is intended to to provide space domain awareness. The mission is also called TacRL-2. The mission is an effort to figure out ways to shrink the timelines for planning space missions. The satellite was developed in less than a year and the launch provider was given 21 days notice to get ready for the flight. It was built by a new organization called “Space Safari” modeled after the Air Force’s “Big Safari” program started during the Cold War for special-mission aircraft. The payload was built based on off-the-shelf components and was joined with an off-the-shelf spacecraft bus of unknown origin. Once the satellite was built, the Space Force kept in storage until May 2021, when it was called up for launch.