Payload Assist Module

PAM-D with the Phoenix spacecraft. The stage is successively spun, fired, yo-yo de-spun and jettisoned.

The Payload Assist Module (PAM) is a modular upper stage designed and built by McDonnell Douglas (Boeing), using Thiokol Star-series solid propellant rocket motors. The PAM was used with the Space Shuttle, Delta, and Titan launchers and carried satellites from low Earth orbit to a geostationary transfer orbit or an interplanetary course. The payload was spin stabilized by being mounted on a rotating plate. Originally developed for the Space Shuttle, different versions of the PAM were developed:

The PAM-D module was used as an optional third stage of the classic Delta rocket. The PAM-D was discontinued after the Challenger accident. A simplified 3rd stage using the STAR-48 motor was employed on Delta II.

2001 re-entry incident

On January 12, 2001, a PAM-D module re-entered the atmosphere after a "catastrophic orbital decay". The PAM-D stage, which had been used to launch the GPS satellite 2A-11 in 1993, crashed in the sparsely populated Saudi Arabian desert, where it was positively identified.

References

  1. ↑ "Payload Assist Module (PAM)". Global Security. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 Krebs, Gunter D. "PAM-D, PAM-D2, PAM-S". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  3. 1 2 "PAM-D Debris Falls in Saudi Arabia" (PDF). The Orbital Debris Quarterly News. 6 (2). NASA Johnson Space Center: 1. April 2001.