ACE Spacecraft

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) was responsible for the design and fabrication of the ACE spacecraft to accommodate the ACE Mission requirements and for the integration, test, and launch support for the entire ACE Observatory. The primary ACE Mission includes a significant number of science instruments - nine - whose diverse requirements had to be factored into the overall spacecraft bus design. Secondary missions for monitoring space weather and measuring launch vibration environments were also accommodated within the spacecraft design. Substantial coordination and cooperation were required between the spacecraft and instrument engineers, and all requirements were met. Overall, the spacecraft was kept as simple as possible in meeting requirements to achieve a highly reliable and low-cost design. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.