Military Payloads Hosted on Commercial Satellites

Commercially hosted military payloads (CHMP) is one approach the Space and Missile Systems Center would like to use to accomplish its mission of delivering resilient and affordable space capabilities. A CHMP uses a commercial satellite’s available size, weight, and power to accommodate a military payload. When the military payload requirements and commercial host characteristics match, a CHMP solution can be a cost saving alternative. To date, the Air Force has only contracted one CHMP, with a 21 September 2011 payload launch. The CHMP was a wide field-of-view infrared sensor, known as the commercially hosted infrared payload (CHIRP). The CHIRP demonstrated that a CHMP solution would garner a reduction in cost and schedule.