History of the Tether Concept and Tether Missions: A Review

Table 1

Tether mission history [1, 7, 9, 21, 24–26, 28, 29].

Mission	Year	Sponsor	Orbit	Length	Status
Gemini XI	1967	NASA	LEO	50 m	Launched
Gemini XII	1967	NASA	LEO	30 m	Launched
TPE-1	1980	NASA/ISAS	Suborbital	400 m	Launched
TPE-2	1981	NASA/ISAS	Suborbital	500 m	Launched
TPE-3 (CHARGE-1)	1983	NASA/ISAS	Suborbital	500 m	Launched
CHARGE-2	1985	NASA/ISAS	Suborbital	500 m	Launched
MAIMIK	1986	NASA/NDRE	LEO	400 m	Launched
ECHO-7	1988	USAF	Suborbital	—	Launched
OEDIPUS-A	1989	NRC/NASA/CRC/CSA	Suborbital	958 m	Launched
CHARGE-2B	1992	NASA/ISAS	Suborbital	500 m	Launched
TSS-1 (STS-46)	1992	NASA/ASI	LEO	267 m	Launched
SEDS-1	1993	NASA	LEO	20 m	Launched
PMG	1993	NASA	LEO	500 m	Launched
SEDS-2	1994	NASA	LEO	20 m	Launched
OEDIPUS-C	1995	NASA/NRC/CRC/CSA	Suborbital	1 km	Launched
TSS-1R (STS-75)	1996	NASA/ASI	LEO	19.6 km	Launched
TSS-2 (STS-75)	1996	NASA	LEO	100 m	Cancelled
TiPS	1996	NRO/NRL	LEO	4 km	Launched
YES	1997	ESA/Delta-Utec	LEO	35 m	Launched
ATEx	1999	NRO/NRL	LEO	22 m	Launched
PICOSATs	2000	Aerospace corporation	LEO	30 m	Launched
MEPSI	2002	Aerospace corporation	LEO	15.2 m	Launched
ProSEDS	2003	NASA	LEO	15 m	Cancelled
MAST	2007	NASA/TUI/Stanford	LEO	1 km	Launched
YES2	2007	ESA/Delta-Utec	LEO	31.7 m	Launched
STARS	2009	Kagawa university	LEO	5 m	Launched
T-REX	2010	ISAS/JAXA	LEO	300 m	Launched
TEPCE	2013	NRO/NRL	LEO	1 km	Planning