Sulfarian Space Agency
| Sulfarian Space Agency (EN) Agence spatiale sulfarienne (FR) | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Sulfarian Space Agency (SSA) is the national space agency of Sulfar. It is under the command of the Ministry of Science and it is responsible of the nation's civilian space program. Its duties are space exploration, development of new space transportation technologies, collecting scientific data about celestial bodies, and operating manned and unmanned space flights.
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Research and development
Illustrious program
The Illustrious program was designed in 1997, two years after the creation of SSA. The Ministry of Science and SSA's administrator chose Dr. Alexandre Tremblay to lead this enormous project: To succesfully build and test an entire launch vehicule from scratch. Dr. Tremblay, only 30, was Sulfar's most competent rocket scientist and aerospace engineer (and is still today), but the development of the Illustrious I-A took 7 years instead of the 5 originally planned. The rocket was medium-sized, designed to carry satellites and various supplies to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The project was a success, and the launch vehicule continued to be developed under Tremblay's direction. The heavy lift rocket Illustrious IV-B is still under development (2011).
The program has a budget of $9.7 billion per year, nearly half of the SSA budget.
Vanguard program
The Vanguard program is a new variant of the Illustrious program. It was designed in 2006, with the goal to create an operationnal manned orbital module. It was to be placed in LEO by an Illustrious II-C rocket and its successors. Dr. Caroline Gates is in charge of the project, with some help from Dr. Tremblay. At the moment, the Vanguard Multi-Purpose Module (VMPM) is still under early testing, and the first unmanned missions for the program are planned for 2013. Future plans for the Vanguard program is to adapt the module for the Illustrious IV-B: with this heavy lift rocket capable of placing tonnage in translunar injection (TLI).
The module will be able to carry up to 4 astronauts or 8,600 kg of fret. The Vanguard project has a budget of $6.13 billion per year.
Missions
Unmanned missions
Science
SSA's science program is very large and recieves almost $5 billion in annual budget. At the moment, two missions are operated. The Galileo Space Telescope is in orbit since 2007. Its duties are to discover new galaxies, detect extrasolar planets, and to study cosmic rays. There is also the Earth Science Satellite, which studies the geography and the climate of our world.
See also
- Illustrious I-A
- Illustrious IV-B
- Vanguard Multi-Purpose Module
| Space agencies |
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National:  ANIA ·  BSA ·  DSA ·  ECSA ·  EASA ·  GZR ·  HASDA ·  ICA ·  ISA ·  INCA ·  ISNSI ·  KLSA .  KNASA ·  NSANT ·  RTSEA ·  SCSA ·  SSA
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| International (defunct): ISP · NSSEI · UNSC |
