Launch Date: December 02, 1997 Mission Project Home Page -
http://www.mpe-garching.mpg.de/EQS/eqs_home.html EQUATOR-S was a
low-cost mission designed to study the Earth's equatorial
magnetosphere out to distances of 67000 km. It formed an element
of the closely-coordinated fleet of satellites that compose the
IASTP program. Based on a simple spacecraft design, it carries a
science payload comprising advanced instruments that were
developed for other IASTP missions. Unique features of EQUATOR-S
were its nearly equatorial orbit and its high spin rate. It was
launched as an auxiliary payload on an Ariane-4, December 2nd,
1997. The mission was intended for a two-year lifetime but
stopped transmitting data on May 1, 1998. The idea of an
equatorial satellite dates back to NASA's GGS (Global Geospace
Science) program, originally conceived in 1980. The equatorial
element of the program was abandoned in 1986 and several
subsequent attempts to rescue the mission failed, leaving a
significant gap in both NASA's GSS and