The tethered satellite system - An electrodynamic mission

The tethered satellite system, a joint U.S.-Italian project to develop a Space Shuttle-based facility for deploying satellites either radially toward or away from the earth to distances up to 100 km, is described with particular attention given to its first mission (TSS-1). The main objective of the TSS-1 mission is to verify the capability of the facility to deploy, control, and retrieve a tethered satellite. The TSS-1 mission will provide a 20-km scale size space plasma physics research facility that moves at supersonic sub-Alfvenic speeds through the natural and unbounded ionospheric magnetoplasma.