The Air Force today decommissioned the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload Satellite -- just months after announcing its interest in potentially keeping the experimental payload in operation through 2015. CHIRP was launched in 2011 as a hosted payload on a commercial communications satellite built by Orbital Sciences Corp. The CHIRP payload, a wide-field-of-view (WFOV) sensor with a one-year mission life, was designed to demonstrate the viability of commercially hosted government payloads and has been providing the service with usable data for...
