Santa Maria Island Station

Santa Maria Island Station (also known as SMA or Montes das Flores, Hill of Flowers) is an ESTRACK satellite ground station in Azores, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the town of Vila do Porto on the island of Santa Maria.[1]

Station currently operates 5.5m S-band antenna capable of receiving signals in 2200-2300 MHz range, the first one in ESTRACK network with launch tracking capability.[1] It covers a large portion of Atlantic ocean and during Ariane 5 launches it acquires signals until the upper stage engine cut-off. Future upgrade for SMA will include X-band antenna working in range of 8025-8400 MHz.[2]

Construction of the station was completed in January 2008 under Ariane Development Programme in agreement between ESA and Portuguese government. A reason for building additional station was tracking of the medium inclination Ariane 5 launches and upcoming Vega along with Soyuz from Guiana Space Centre. The first launch tracked by newly build site was Ariane 5 ES flight V-181 lifting Automated Transfer Vehicle Jules Verne in March 2008.[2]

When not used for launch tracking station is used in CleanSeaNet and MARISS service for Copernicus Programme[3]:42 (7/8)

References
  1. "Santa Maria Station". ESA. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  2. "Boosting capability: Santa Maria station to join ESTRACK". ESA. 10 January 2008. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  3. Gerhard Billig; Boris Smeds; Pier Michele Roviera; J. Pedro V. Poiares Baptista. "Santa Maria Station, another element in a European Launcher Tracking Network" (PDF). ESA. Retrieved 16 August 2014.


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